


Love Alarm

by Calliopeia



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, MariBat, Maridami, Multi, ml au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-22
Updated: 2020-05-02
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:36:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 23,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23787208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Calliopeia/pseuds/Calliopeia
Summary: What if there was an app that could tell you who loves you? Not only the romantic kind of love, but also attraction, friendship love, and familiar love. Would you install it?Marinette and Damian were one of the few ones who didn't have the app. But thanks to a prank and an attempt of knowing how loved one is, both of them ended up with it. And thanks to a school trip to the most dangerous city on the planet, they bumped into each other. Of course, the app couldn't resist itself but to set off in one of their cellphones.Will they pay attention to their Love Alarms? Or will they continue to think of it as nothing but a silly game?
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug/Damian Wayne
Comments: 51
Kudos: 277





	1. 1

Jason was laughing.

No, scratch that, he was wheezing to the point of no longer breathings, tears visible in the corner of his eyes. He had been at that, laying on the floor, for at least the last five minutes. And as time went on, there wasn’t any sign that he would stop soon.

Damian wanted to murder him, as always, but this time in a more horrible way. He needed to update his 100 ways to kill a Jason list, he could think at least 3 more ways to murder him and they all involved a spoon.

The reason for Damian’s sudden willingness to die, and Jason’s hysteria, was a simple cellphone. The kind that everyone had, the kind that was as harmless as a little ladybug. Except that Damian’s cellphone had decided that it was time to become a ticking bomb, making those annoying noises over and over again.

Damian really didn’t understand what was going on, he had made sure to check his cellphone for any virus but nothing had come up. It was only until Jason could breathe again that he got any sort of explanation.

“It’s the app”

“The app? Will you speak coherent English for once in your life?”

“Calm down, demon spawn. Here, let me see”

Jason grabbed his cellphone, scrolling through the different apps that Damian had installed. They weren’t many.

Once Jason found what he was looking for, he pressed the weirdly pink icon and waited for the app to load. It only took some seconds before the whole screen went pink, with many red hearts fluttering in a colorful circle. Some hearts popped and disappeared; others came out of nothing. The only thing that Damian noticed other than the incredible pink, was that every time a new heart appeared, the annoying thing started beeping.

“What the fuck is that?”

“It’s called Love Alarm. Tim and I installed it on your cellphone when you weren’t paying attention. We thought that it would never even beep once, but well…”

Just like that, Jason went into another laugh attack. Damian tried asking him more bout this Love Alarm, but soon he realized that Jason wouldn’t be able to say anything without laughing because of another beep. So, he turned to the only useful thing that was able to actually answer his questions.

In Google’s search bar, he typed Love Alarm. In mere seconds, there were more than a million results. Damian clicked on the first link, a news article talking about the app. Apparently, it was quite famous all over the world. The app, made by an anonymous person, was able to detect if anyone loved you within a space of 10 meters. Of course, the app only detected those who had the app, so that would explain why Damian’s cellphone hadn’t beeped even once until that day.

Damian raised his eyes and looked around. If the person had to be within ten meters, then that would explain the disappearing hearts. Since they were in the middle of the street, as soon as someone that “loved” him stepped out of his 10 meters, the heart would disappear.

The young people around him were also looking at their cellphones, probably wanting to see if anyone loved them. A group of girls and boys near him were blushing, giving continues glances towards him and Jason.

Damian was completely tired of the beeping and Jason. Sadly, he didn’t know how to turn off the app, so he did the next best thing so that he could get rid of the beeping. He grabbed Jason by the collar of his shirt and walked away from the main street, looking for any place with fewer people.

They ended up in a small alley, lightly lit by the billboard of a nearby hotel. There, the only people outside of the hotel and inside the 10-meter space was Damian and Jason, so finally, the hearts had stopped.

Damian sighed and sat down, his back against the alley’s brick wall. He already hated that app. It wasn’t even love what those people felt for him, but just mere attraction. He was sure that if they knew him, the real him, there would be no beeping from his Love Alarm.

Jason, on the other hand, seemed to have finally calmed down. He took out his cellphone, probably telling Tim about the great day he had thanks to the little prank they decided to pull on the demon spawn.

Damian was ready to go home when a sudden noise caught his attention.

A small, tiny young girl, had accidentally tripped on herself, sending bags full of fabrics to the floor. She was muttering something to herself, Damian only catching some words in French. From where he was sitting, she looked quite beautiful. She had dark blue hair and some beautiful eyes, that looked just like the sky when there where no clouds around, the sky of a happy and beautiful day…

The girl raised her head from the fabrics and looked at him, tilting her head almost like a little dog. Gosh, she looked adorable, and the lights illuminated her almost as if forming a halo around her head. She looked just like the most beautiful angel he had ever seen. Damian couldn’t stop himself from standing up and walking towards her as to help her. An angel without wings couldn’t be left alone on the street like that.

A beep interrupted his train of thought.

All color drained from Damian’s face. Had she made his Love Alarm beep? Was the angel attracted to him? What if she was? How could he talk to her without making a complete fool of himself now? What if she didn’t like him anymore and he would have to see the angel’s heart disappear from his screen?

Jason coughed behind him, making Damian turn his head towards the irritating older boy.

“What do you want now?”, he hissed.

“Don’t get mad Demon Spawn, but I think that wasn’t your Love Alarm”

He nodded towards the girl on the floor, the angel, who now had her cellphone out and was looking at it. A small smile emerged from her tiny rosy lips as she looked at the screen, the pink lights shining against her face.

The angel stood up, grabbed her things, and said something to the boys in French. Damian instantly regretted never taking those French classes that his father had insisted so much on.

Once she was done speaking, she raised her cellphone so that the boys could see her screen. In her Love Alarm, a tiny red heart was floating all alone, as red as Damian’s face now.

The angel smiled and walked inside the hotel, not even looking back.

“Hey, Jason? What did she say just now?”

“My French’s a little rusty, but it was something along the lines of, “I think you are quite nice too””

“Oh”

Damian kept staring as she went inside the hotel. From the hotel’s glass door, he could see how a group of young people like her started circling her, telling her something. If it wasn’t for the hate in their eyes and the way she hugged herself as if wanting to disappear from that place, Damian would have ignored the scene completely.

A sudden feeling of anger invaded him. What did they have against the angel? Gosh, he wanted to talk to her, to see if his Love Alarm would beep because of her. He wanted to know her better, see her smile that little grin of hers once more. He wanted to get her away from those bullies.

“Tell Batman that I have my own plans for tonight’s patrol”

“Plans? What plans?”

“I need to make sure an Angel is safe”


	2. Chapter 2

Ladybug was swinging herself through the beautiful city of Paris, the dim lights illuminating her way and the alleys, alleys in which a woman was being robbed by a man with a gun.

She stopped dead in her tracks, barely making it to the next rooftop.

That wasn’t Paris.

Ladybug sighed and pulled her yoyo to her side. With her trusty weapon, she pulled it once more, this time so as to take the gun from the man. Once the gun was securely in her hands, she dropped herself to the alley, making sure to give her back to the woman as to face the robber eye to eye.

Of course, it really wasn’t eye to eye, was it? The robber probably was in his late thirties, a man already, who stood several centimeters above her head. Still, what Ladybug lacked in stature she made up in her eyes, which were throwing daggers to the man.

Without his weapon, he wasn’t as brave as before. Like a rat, he scurried away through the dark, not even looking back once.

The woman behind her gave her a hug, smiled, and kept walking as if nothing had happened. Ladybug wondered where she was going to, maybe to her house with her family waiting for her. Maybe she would tell them about the man who almost killed her for a few bucks, and about the spotted heroine that came to her rescue.

Or maybe she wouldn’t. Maybe the woman was already used to almost dying every day, just for being saved by another hero.

Gotham wasn’t Paris, even if Ladybug tried to fool herself repeatedly. The people were more… smart, more used to mortal danger. Where Parisians allowed themselves to be clumsy and foolish in the face of a crime, gothanians were always alert, always with their eyes studying the man walking by their side who looked just a little bit too close for comfort. Ladybug could understand it. Where Parisians had their beloved heroes and the Miraculous Cure, Gotham only had some heroes that acted more as vigilantes. And of course, no cure.

While Paris was always confident in being saved, Gotham was always fearful of it maybe being their last day. Ladybug didn’t know which one she preferred.

She threw her yoyo to a lamppost, pulling herself up once again.

One thing was for sure, she preferred swinging in Gotham. There were taller buildings, skyscrapers even, and when she pulled her yoyo, it almost felt like flying. She liked it.

Ladybug was almost 100% sure that she shouldn’t have left the hotel that night. Ladybug shouldn’t be seen in Gotham, there would be too many clues of her identity that way. But after what happened back in the hotel, she just needed to breathe at least a moment.

///////////

It was kind of idiotic, wasn’t it? The way that one app had so much power over so many people?

She hadn’t even wanted to download it in the first place. Adrien had convinced her to do so, something about how it would help her realize how loved she was. The only thing it actually did was make her realize that her class didn’t love her as they used to. Or maybe they loved her help. It wasn’t clear which it had been.

Other than distancing her from the class, even more, the app also made her notice that at least Adrien still cared for her. Maybe not in the way she would have liked some years ago, but she had a place in his heart.

Ever since some months ago, Adrien had been different. Not only to her but to everyone. He had begun to act more like he actually had a spine, protecting and helping Marinette whenever Lila or the class got her in trouble. Of course, the sunshine boy still wasn’t perfect. He allowed Lila to get away with too many lies, and he forgave his friends too easily. But hey, change was change, and it was the good kind of change.

At first, when Adrien began being the new him, Marinette was wary. He had lost her trust a long time ago, and it was something that wasn’t easy to gain back. But slowly, Adrien actually managed to win his place as her friend back.

Friends.

Just that, and honestly, she didn’t want it any other way.

The longer time they spent together, the more she got to know him. And vice versa. Adrien learned about her family and the way they put her on a pedestal; he learned about the way that Marinette loved animals, but because of her mother’s allergy she never had the chance to get a pet. In turn, Marinette learned of all the different manga he loved, and how he loved them because they represented the life he wanted but would never actually be able to get.

They became good friends. Good friends that went to the movies together, the kind of friends that would have sleepovers almost every day. Because they learned to love the other’s company, even in their silence.

And the darker the nights would get, the more they would talk. Soon enough, she told him about her old crush, and they laughed. He told her about how he had no idea, and they laughed. She told him of Lila’s threats, and they hugged. He told her of how he was almost an orphan, of how his parents wouldn’t even spare him a glance, and they cried.

He told her about how he never actually felt an attraction to anyone, either boys or girls, and they held hands, each counting the other’s barely visible scars.

They were friends, and they loved each other.

But that didn’t mean that everything was fixed.

The class didn’t need Lila’s lies to hate her anymore. They just did. Almost as if her bare existence was enough to spite them. They would sometimes laugh at her, prank her, scream at her. Destroy her.

They destroyed the dress she had been working on for the last three months. It was supposed to be a piece inspired by Van Gogh’s Starry Night, and she had given all her savings and time working on that project. She took it to their trip in Gotham so that she could keep working on it, not even wanting to waste a single second.

And on their first night there, she realized that she needed more yellow fabric to make the stars. So, she went out, carelessly leaving the dress on top of her bed.

She bought the fabric, many different types, and tones of yellow. And on her way back, she had been trying to remember if there was something she was missing when she tripped. Maybe it was a rock, or a brick, or just her own foot, but she fell, right in front of two boys that seemed to be around her age.

Marinette had sighed as she started picking up her stuff when her phone beeped. She thought it might have been a message from Adrien or from her parents, but instead, it was the app. Her Love Alarm. And there was a tiny red heart floating on her screen.

She couldn’t help but smile. It was the first time she had seen a heart that didn’t belong to her family or Adrien. Even if it was someone she didn’t know, she still loved the way her own heart fluttered with joy as she saw the red heart.

But of course, her happiness couldn’t really last that long. As soon as she was back in the hotel, her heart was torn into pieces, just like her dress. Apparently, Lila and Alya had thought it would be a fun prank to pull some of the fabrics of the dress. And once they started, they couldn’t stop. So, with the help of the class and some scissors, her beautiful Starry Night had turned into scraps.

Marinette didn’t cry. They didn’t deserve her tears.

She simply locked herself in her room and transformed to breathe some air.

/////////

Her thoughts were interrupted by a sudden crash in front of her. Someone had left their clothes hanging in the top of a rooftop, and it served as the obstacle for a certain masked hero. He was dressed in red, white, and green, and was followed by other two heroes, these ones dressed in mostly black and red.

They seemed to be laughing at the other boy, who was clearly annoyed. They were speaking to each other, but Ladybug was still too far away to actually hear them. But the traffic light boy caught a glimpse of her red suit and raised his head to look her dead in the eyes. Well, not dead, more like curiously. He seemed to tell her something, but just at that moment, a car on the street started honking, followed by a full orchestra made by vehicles.

Ladybug smiled at the traffic light boy and shrugged, pointing to her own ears. She saw how the other boys started noticing her, the traffic light boy trying to jump to her rooftop probably to question her. But before he even had the chance, Ladybug saluted him with two fingers and threw her yoyo to the farthest building she could reach, drifting herself away into the night.


	3. Chapter 3

Damian and Jason were at one bad news to snap the closest neck, which just happened to be the other.

As soon as they saw the Love Alarm girl (they had begun to call her that since she had no name), Damian had decided that the people in the hotel were bad people. Why? He had no idea. But they must have done something really bad if they had the power to strip an angel of her smile.

So, as any hero would do, he decided to check on her. No, it wasn’t because he made her Love Alarm beep, as Jason continuously reminded him. It was part of his duty to the city and to whoever that decided to take some vacations in that hell hole.

The only thing Damian had noticed before losing the Angel from his sight was that she went inside the elevator. That was it. No floor number, not even a single idea of which was her room. No way to check on her as fast as he wanted. But, thankfully it was already dark outside, therefore she was probably going to sleep like any reasonable human being would.

Sadly, an angel is no human being.

Jason and him, donning their masks, checked the building up and down, every single corner, every single window. Robin even had harassed the poor hotel manager as soon as he went outside to take out the trash. There was no sign of the angel, and when he tried spying on the young people that had bothered her, he realized that they had as many brains as a potato.

There was no clue to where she was or if she even existed at all. Nothing, nada de nada. Zero. Robin was even beginning to think that he imagined her, a product of all the sleepless nights he had somehow survived through. But no, Jason had seen her too, even laughed at him because of her. Therefore, she had to exist. There was no way that he was sharing a hallucination with that idiot.

That was when he started freaking out.

What if when he was daydreaming, a villain had appeared and taken her without anybody noticing? It would be the first time that happened, but there was a first time for everything. Or maybe the angel had decided to go out again, escaping Damian and Jason, only to get lost in one of the many alleys for a psychopath to find her and strip her from her skin and gut her and…

Red Hood, as probably the worst older brother he could be, decided that it was the time to say a joke.

“Well, Damian, if you made her Love Alarm beep, maybe another sociopath managed to do it too!”

Without thinking it twice, Robin punched him in the throat, causing his stupidly annoying brother to go into a coughing fit.

The “joke” was the last straw. Robin called on Nightwing and Red Robin, interrupting their patrol. They weren’t that happy with his call, but as soon as he told them that someone was missing, they arrived at his location almost immediately.

“What happened?”

“Who’s dead?”

“Where’s Jason?”

“Isn’t he the body laying on top of the trash bags?”

The two heroes that seemed to have at least three mouths each finally shut up. They glanced behind Robin’s shoulder, where Red Hood’s body was barely seen. He didn’t seem to be breathing, some flies already hanging around his face.

Red Robin whistled while Nightwing looked mortified.

“Well, I called it. You owe me 20 bucks Dick”

Grumbling something under his breath, Nightwing took out the money from his tool belt. Robin raised his eyebrow at their stupid bet but didn’t dare comment on their awful life decisions.

“So, tell us, where do you want to bury him? I know a certain place where Batsy would never find him”, said the one who was supposed to be the greatest detective of all times, not the greatest murder accomplice.

“As much as I loved knowing that you two made bets on Demon Spawn killing me first, I believe we have someone to find”

Behind Robin, Red Hood had silently stood up, cracking his neck as he spoke. Nightwing simply shrugged as he extended his hand towards the other hero, waiting to get his 20 bucks back. Red Robin, sadly, gave them back.

“If it makes you feel better, I bet that Damian would kill Tim first”

“Of course you did”

The three brothers continued fighting with each other. At one point, Robin saw how Red Robin’s hand “slipped” to Nightwing’s pocket, taking back the lost money. Meanwhile, the one being stolen from was too focused on mocking the Red Hood, who was spitting some flies that had been caught in his mouth after his glorious speech.

Robin cleared his throat, interrupting their bickering.

“Should I remind you that there is someone missing?”

“Oh, yeah, Demon Spawn’s angel”

Robin threw a rock to the other’s helmet, hearing an ouch that filled him with joy.

He told the other’s some simple details about how the angel looked, the way she was dressed, and his theories of her being gutted in an alley. They ignored the theories, but everything else was listed in their minds.

Almost as if they were the same person, the four of them took out a grabbing hook, taking themselves up into the air until they reached the nearest rooftop.

The boys had decided to divide themselves, so as to each hero would check on the next 4 streets to their respective right. Communicating through their ear comm, it didn’t take them that long until they realized that the girl was nowhere to be found. Which was impossible, because there was no way that she could walk even farther than the radius they had established in the time she had disappeared. Even if she took a bus, the traffic would have stopped the bus, keeping the girl inside the radius.

They decided to meet up on the rooftop of an almost abandoned apartment building. The only people that continued living there were a pair of old couples who had decided that they were too comfortable in their crappy apartments to move out.

As soon as the heroes landed (except an unlucky Red Hood), Robin caught a glimpse of a figure in front of him, right on the next rooftop. He could barely see the figure, cloaked by the shadows of the night.

“Hey! Who are you?”, he screamed at it.

With a car passing, the lights illuminated the figure, making some details more noticeable. Like their pigtails, and the mask, and the way that their entire body was covered in red and black spots. The person pointed to their ears, making it obvious that they hadn’t heard him.

“Who are you? It’s dangerous to be here! Go back down!”

To his bad luck, it seemed that there was an accident or something on the street because the vehicles started honking like crazy. The person noticed it too, their sight was completely concentrated on the traffic below. Before Robin could speak again, the figure smiled and threw a small thing into the air, pulling itself to another rooftop.

He suddenly remembered the Angel. Deciding that the Spots where something to be taken care of later, he went back to the hotel, leaving his brothers behind.

“Go back to the mansion, if Batman asks, tell him I had some business”

Not even allowing them to answer, he turned off his comm.

/////////

Once Robin was back in the hotel, he realized that he had spent 2 hours looking for the angel. Granted, he had been distracted by his useless brothers and the Spots, but that had to be enough time for the angel to be back from wherever she was.

He decided to patrol the hotel floor, from the inside this time. That way he would notice if there was anything wrong from the inside, or if he found the young people from before.

He was on the third floor when he noticed something… weird.

There had been a voice speaking in what he supposed was French. Then, some sparkling lights. And a series of steps too loud, almost as if whoever it was had hurried to get into their room.

Following the noises and the light source, Robin got closer and closer to the strange person. Whoever it was, had to be bad. Maybe his theories had been right and there was someone tracking the angel.

Certain of this idea, Robin turned the corner fastly, grabbing by the collar whoever was on the other side.

He had expected a villain, a suspicious-looking person. He was prepared to see the Joker.

Instead, he was eye to eye with a green-eyed blonde, who started speaking in broken English.

“You… you are Robin, right? The hero?”

Inside his head, Robin was screaming.

This wasn’t the one he was looking for. He wasn’t the angel, neither was he a person that could have hurt the angel. Unless…

If his memories didn’t fail him, amongst the young people that had bothered his angel was a blonde. Yes, he was sure of that.

Grabbing him more confidently, Robin eyed him up and down.

“Where is she?”

“She?”

The poor boy looked honestly confused. He was raising his hands as if it was a police thriller, as if Robin was going to shoot him if he didn’t do it.

Robin decided that the blonde wasn’t guilty of physically harming the angel. But mentally and emotionally? That was something he hadn’t decided yet.

“Yes, the bluebell girl. Blue pigtails, French, the prettiest smile in the world, you must know her”

The boy sighed as if he was glad that he actually knew the angel.

Of course, he should be glad. It was a miracle that anyone had the opportunity to know someone as beautiful as the angel.

“You must be talking about Marinette then. She went to sleep a long time ago, but maybe she went out for something to eat. She had been saying that she hadn’t eaten anything in the last hours, so I asked her to at least buy something from the vending machine”

Marinette.

Marinette was the angel.

Robin didn’t understand why the thought of her name made his heart flutter.

The hero ignored his confusing feelings for a moment. If what the blonde was saying to him was right, then maybe Marinette had gone to the vending machine while he was searching the rest of the hotel and Gotham. Yes, that would make sense. Kind of.

“Why? Is she in trouble?”

The blonde seemed concerned. It was then that Robin noticed the way that the blonde’s heart seemed to beat faster when he talked about her, and the way that his lips trembled when he asked for her wellbeing.

Was he the angel’s significant other?

He couldn’t be, right?

“No, I don’t think so. She just disappeared for a moment”

The blonde chuckled.

“Yeah, that sounds like Marinette”

“You two are a thing?”

Robin cringed at his question. Gosh, he sounded just like a cliché of a teenager. But he didn’t know how else to ask without seeming too interested. Not that he already looked that way.

“What, Marinette and I? No, not really. We are best friends, that’s it. Is there a problem with that?”

A weight had been lifted from Robin’s shoulders, while it seemed to have fallen on top of the blonde.

“No, no problem at all. Tell you what blonde, be a good best friend and keep an eye on that girl for me, will you? It’s already late, you should probably go to sleep”

Robin finally let go of the blonde’s collar, patted his shoulder, and left the hotel as soon as he came in.

Marinette, the angel, was alright. And if he made sure to pay attention to the young people accompanying her, she would probably continue to be so.

He just hoped that the blonde was telling the truth.


	4. Chapter 4

Marinette Dupain-Cheng could easily say that she was sick of Love Alarm.

It wasn’t the app’s fault, truly, the app did what it was supposed to do. It told you who loved you, or at least, was attracted to you.

The thing was that the app couldn’t lie. The developer had done it so good that there was no way even a hacker could affect it. Some had tried but instead had come out to the news saying that whoever did the app, they were truly admirable in informatics.

But of course, no one who wasn’t at least a tiny bit informed about the app would know that. In example, her class.

The day had started alright. She was still angry and sad about the dress, but she decided that she could at least use the remaining scraps to create something new. Maybe some accessories, a purse, a jacket. Not a dress, but something else.

Tikki had told her earlier that morning that if she wanted, the little goddess could use some of her magic to fix the dress. Marinette had told her not to, she didn’t want the class to find it again and do what they did. She didn’t want to see the mess a second time.

So, she tried to go down to the hotel lobby with a smile, or at least a blank face. From her phone, she sent some messages to Adrien, avoiding the topic of the dress altogether. He had gone as mad as Adrien could, threatening the class that if they didn’t find a way to fix the mess they had made, then his father and the school would take notice.

Sadly, their old friends didn’t take those threats that seriously. They all knew that Gabriel Agreste didn’t give one fuck about his son unless it was involved with his company. And the school… well, Madame Bustier was there and she didn’t do anything. What would the school do?

Nothing.

There really was nothing they could do.

So, Adrien’s threats had fallen to deaf ears, and instead of apologizing, all the students did was wait for Lila to do her move so that the blonde would finally shut up.

That night, they had all gone to their rooms with a sour mood. The next morning, it seemed that the victim herself was the only one willing to at least act as if nothing was wrong.

“I don’t understand Mari, you should be punching them in their faces right now”, was the first thing her only friend said when he saw her having breakfast in the hotel, in a table all by herself, while the class sent her death glares.

Marinette just shrugged and pointed to the sit in front of her for Adrien to sit.

“If I do, then I’ll be the one suspended from school. Maybe even expelled”, she said dismissively as she ate her soggy cereal. “And what good would it do? No, it would be way better to just enjoy the rest of the trip as much as I can”

“But, Mari-“

“I am serious Adrien. If I try to do anything against them, I’ll be doing exactly what they want. I won’t give them the pleasure”

“It’s just that… You do know you deserve to be angry, right? You have the right to be angry, you don’t have to be the better person always”

Marinette kept quiet for a while. She had been angry, and she had acted out on that anger. She went out as Ladybug on the streets of Gotham, even though that had been dangerous for herself and her identity as a superhero. If someone had realized that Ladybug was there, then it would be easy to make conclusions.

But no one did.

She had been reckless, she had been angry, and the worst thing that happened because of that was that the vigilantes of Gotham saw her. That’s it. The world didn’t come to an end, and she certainly enjoyed her little trip.

“I know”, she smiled. “And I am angry, and this is my way of being so. By showing them that I can be angry and still be a better person than all of them combined”

Adrien still looked worried, but she knew that if she told him what had happened last night, then he wouldn’t be. He would probably be happy for her accepting her feelings instead of oppressing them.

“Yesterday I went to my room quite late. I had been talking in the lobby with Kagami about the fencing competition next month”

“Oh, really? You two will compete?”

“She will. I still don’t know if my father will let me since it’s supposed to be the month for a fashion campaign of his”

“Maybe you can convince Nathalie”

“Maybe. But that isn’t what I wanted to say. When I went back to my room, I found someone… how can I put it… looking for you”

Adrien looked lost in thought. It was only then that Mari realized that Adrien had a small mark on his neck as if someone’s nails had been pressed against his skin.

“What happened to your neck?”

“And well, to be honest, he seemed quite frantic, almost as if he knew you or something. He thought you were in danger”

Adrien had ignored her completely. He was avoiding the question, probably because she would get mad if he had gotten hurt because of someone else.

“Adrien-“

“It wasn’t until I saw his face that I recognized him. It seems that you are famous even in Gotham, one of the American heroes was looking for you”

“American heroes?”

“Yeah, you know, like Batman, Superman, you know them. Anyways, Robin was worried for you. I thought you should know”

“Robin?”

“The hero, Batman’s sidekick. Isn’t he your friend? He was looking like a madman for you, yesterday”

Marinette struggled to try and remember any Robin. The name sounded familiar; she was sure that she had heard it somewhere in the news one time. But no image came to mind. Why would he be looking for her? Maybe he had confused her for someone else. Or he had seen her transform into Ladybug and was now in an active hunt trying to find her and lock her in America until he knew who Ladybug was.

But there was no way that could happen, right?

“I honestly have no idea what you are talking about”

Adrien seemed willing to insist on the subject when Lila, tired of seeing the golden boy talk to her declared enemy, interrupted their little chat.

“Good morning Adrien! Did you sleep well? I myself couldn’t, because of my back injury, you see. The mattress was too hard on me, and now because of that, I must take many pills for the pain. And I spoke to my doctor through the phone, he says that I shouldn’t carry anything, or the pain will get worse, so I am sure that you will help me, right Adrien?”

While Lila talked, the two friends just made faces at each other. She was so focused on making up the lie, that she didn’t notice the constant giggles from Marinette as Adrien made signs with his hands, pointing constantly to his own back and acting as if he was an old man.

Once she had finally finished talking though, Adrien was back to be the trophy boy that Lila loved so much.

“I am sorry, Lila, but I already told Madame Bustier that I would help her carry the lunches for the class, but I am sure than anyone else from the class will be willing to help you”

With that, he stood up, walked towards Marinette and took her hand, leaving a fuming Lila behind.

“I think that if Lila had any injury it was probably something on her head. Even a three-year-old baby would notice how stupid what she said was”

“I think the others are the babies. Next Christmas, we should buy them some pacifiers, that way they’ll stop crying every time something doesn’t go Lila’s way”

“Speaking of which…”

“Be prepared for an Alya bomb in three…”

“Two…

“One-“

“Adrien!”

Marinette and Adrien started laughing.

“Yes, Alya?”, said Adrien through his tears, the air already failing him as the laughter only rose more when they saw Alya’s face of confusion.

“I just came to tell you that I already spoke with Madame Bustier, I will carry the lunch so that you can help Lila, you know, so that you two can have some time for yourselves”

Alya winked at him as if they had a little conspiracy going on. Adrien, however, completely ignored the speculations Alya must have been making.

Marinette wondered what Lila had told them. Maybe because of a web of lies, Alya now thought that Adrien had a think for Lila.

“Yeah, thanks Alya, but I don’t really want to spend more time with her. I am perfectly fine with Marinette and the lunches”

“Maybe you can help Lila? That way you two can spend more time with each other?”, Marinette said with a smile on her face, glancing towards the blonde on her side.

“No one asked for your opinion, Marinette. Haven’t you understood by now? You are not wanted here, you are not needed, you aren’t even liked by anyone other than your parents. So please, do yourself a favor, and shut your mouth”.

“Well, Alya, I want her here, need her by my side, I like her, and if anyone should shut their mouth is you”

The class had started to come closer to the three teens. They hadn’t really said anything until Adrien said that last phrase. They exploded with their self-made conclusions, constantly saying over and over again how Adrien had basically declared himself to Marinette in front of Alya, and consequently Lila.

It was a mess. Marinette could only really pick some sentences here and there.

Nino was utterly offended that his old best friend hadn’t told him about his “crush” on Marinette.

Alix was saying that maybe they deserved each other, after all, they were the outcasts of the school.

Kim thought Adrien and Lila had a thing for each other. Max thought so too.

Rose sparked the idea that maybe, just maybe, he was lying. What if Marinette had convinced him to pull a sick prank on the others?

Juleka was angry at Marinette for stealing Adrien away when she knew that Luka had a crush on her.

And Lila, poor Lila was crying.

“Why would you say that Adrien? You said you liked me!”

“What? I never said anything like that, and I never said I had a crush on Marinette”

“But you did”

“You said you liked her”

“Why do you keep lying Adrien? Just accept that you have a crush on Lila and this will all be over”

Marinette watched silently as the chaos unfolded. Poor Adrien was being screamed and cried at, being blamed for breaking Lila’s heart. She just couldn’t allow her best friend to be attacked for a misunderstanding.

“Guys, calm down, Adrien doesn’t like me. Nor Lila, now that we are at it”

“Shut up, you whore!”, Alya spat at her. “We all knew how much you’ve loved Adrien since years ago, we know that you stole him from Lila!”

“Are you even listening to me? He doesn’t like me that way, neither do I anymore. We are just friends. And he isn’t an object that can be stolen, he’s a person with feelings and decisions!”

“Then prove it! Prove that you two don’t like each other, and that Adrien doesn’t have a thing for Lila!”

Marinette let out a nervous laugh. She glanced to the lobby’s clock. Madam Bustier was nowhere to be seen, and they should have left on the buses for the tour of the day at least fifteen minutes ago. Maybe the grown woman had woken up late and was on her way downstairs. Maybe she had seen the teenage drama and decided that it wasn’t her responsibility, and hit before anybody saw her.

Whatever it was, Marinette just wanted for the teacher to appear and send them all to the buses. She wanted the stupid and unnecessary drama to be over.

“Guys, please”, said Adrien, who looked very angry at Alya. “I don’t have a crush on anyone. Can we please go to the buses now?”

“Not until you prove it, Agreste”, snarled Alix.

“Fine, then. What do you want me to do?”

“Turn on your Love Alarm. Everyone”, ordered Alya, at the same time that she was taking out her phone from her purse.

Marinette and Adrien gave each other a glance.

It wouldn’t work.

They both already knew that they made each other’s Love Alarm beep. Because they loved each other as friends, not as lovers per say. That was probably the fatal flaw of the app. It just detected those who were attracted to you or loved you. It didn’t make any distinction on the different types of love that exists or the way that attraction doesn’t mean love.

For example, just because someone made your Love Alarm beep, it doesn’t make them trustworthy, or your soul mate, or your future partner. It just means that they have some sort of feelings for you.

And Adrien and Marinette knew that well. They made each other’s Love Alarm beep, and it was in a completely different kind of love than the one their classmates were imagining.

It didn’t make any difference when they showed their Love Alarms. They all knew that the only heart floating in Marinette’s screen belonged to Adrien. So, chaos erupted once more, this time accusing her of not only stealing Adrien but also hacking the app so that Adrien would always make hers beep.

They didn’t care how it didn’t make sense, even Max was trying to calm them down on the hacking accusations.

The class, her old friends, just didn’t care. And behind them all, was a smiling Lila, standing triumphally over them all.

“Well, we can’t have any criminals with us on the bus, right?”

The boys grabbed Adrien by the arms, forcing him to go in the bus even though he was clearly trying to fight them off him. Meanwhile, the girls walked behind them to the bus, not allowing Marinette to come anywhere near them. Madam Bustier had finally appeared, and she hadn’t even asked the others where Marinette was.

Once they all left, Marinette looked down to her phone.

Without giving it any second thoughts, she uninstalled the app as she wiped away her tears.


	5. Chapter 5

Damian had started his morning perfectly.

A cup of hot coffee, a breakfast made by the one and only Alfred, and a complete hour without the company of his brothers was the recipe for perfect mornings. He had spent his morning reading the different news on his cellphone, while he listened to some music from the radio.

Dick and Tim had left earlier that morning, saying that a school was visiting Wayne Enterprises and that they had to give them a tour. Jason on the other hand hadn’t even come home last night, offended because of the pathetic patrol he had. So, he went to his personal apartment to spend some alone time and lick his wounds.

Bruce had spent the last two days away, working with the Justice League on a case from some other country. He had seemed worried, and even a bit angry, the last time Damian saw him. He kept muttering something about leaving the hard work to children, irresponsibility, and stupid governments.

So, the youngest Wayne had all the day for himself. Dick had invited him to go and help them with the tour, but he had refused almost immediately. There was no way he would spend his free day in trying to control some stupid little kids.

Instead, he decided to try and learn more about the angel.

He had done some research on the hotel and its guests, but there was no Marinette. Most of the hotel rooms were in the name of the College Francoise Dupont, a school all the way from France who had decided that their yearly school trip would be in Gotham.

Damian had snickered at that. A school, a French school for that matter had decided that the perfect school trip would be in one of the most unsafe cities in the whole world. Maybe they didn’t read the news that often, but Damien was sure that at least weekly, there was world news dedicated to the Batman and one of the city’s infamous villains.

Yeah, not as attractive as some piña coladas in Puerto Vallarta, thought Damian.

Since the angel had spoken French on their encounter, and the boy Robin had talked to had a bit of an accent, Damian concluded that Marinette probably came from that school trip. Which probably meant that the other people on the hotel harassing her were her classmates.

Damian knew that there was no reason why he should get mad because of that. He didn’t know anything other than her name, which she didn’t even tell him in the first place, but there was still something inside of him that told him that whatever they were doing to her, it wasn’t right.

Maybe if he hadn’t made her Love Alarm beep, he wouldn’t care that much about what was happening. After all, Damian understood that it beeped because he was attracted to her, not because they were meant to be. But things happened for a reason, and if the Love Alarm gave him a chance to help someone, then he needed to do it.

Marinette would probably go back home in some days, maybe weeks. She wouldn’t remember the boy in the alley, but if Damian played his cards right, she would at least remember a good trip.

So, with that thought in mind, he got to work.

Some minutes after breakfast, he already had the school’s itinerary, as well as the contact information of the legal guardians of the students. He thought that would come in handy in the future, so he made sure to save it in the computer and his private phone just in case.

Next, he checked what the school was going to be doing for the day. As soon as he saw Wayne Enterprises on the schedule, he called Dick, saying that he changed his mind and that he would go and help them with the school tour.

“Any reason why you changed your mind?”, said a sleepy Dick on the other side of the line. From the way his words were barely understandable, he imagined that his brother was having breakfast.

“Well, knowing you, you would allow the brats to destroy the whole building before actually saying no to one of their silly petitions”

“Yeah, yeah. Is that all?”

Damian had considered hanging up right there and then. Truly, the only real reason he wanted to go was to see if Marinette needed his help and to see how bad the class’s relationship with her was. But before he told Dick that he would see him in an hour, a glimpse of something metallic caught his eye.

It was a container. A metallic container. The kind where you put in beverages to keep them cold or hot. This one was able to contain 1 gallon of whatever substance you wanted to put in, and thanks to its metallic outside, the only way of knowing which liquid was inside, was by tasting it. But Damian didn’t need to do that. He recognized the container, and even more, the initials engraved on its handle.

A sudden chill ran up his back.

If the container was left on the table, it could only mean that something very bad was going to happen very soon unless Damian did something about it.

“No, now that I think about it, I have a better reason to go help”

“Oh really? What would be better than stopping the building from being destroyed?”

“Giving Tim his coffee before he kills someone”

“Shit”

“Yeah”

“Please come soon”

“I’ll try”

With that, Dick hung up. Damian stood up from the table, grabbed a jacket, his keys, and Tim’s coffee before leaving the mansion.

////////////////////

When Damian finally arrived at Dick’s office, it looked as if a war had taken place before he arrived. There were flower vases thrown on the floor, the curtains were ripped in half, and the desk itself was on the floor, used as a shield by a trembling Dick on the other side.

“I told you already, I don’t know where you left it!”, was the first thing he shouted when Damian opened the door.

“What the fuck Dick?”

“Oh, it’s you”, said Dick, as he cowardly raised his head above his table fort. “I have been waiting for you for the past hour, where were you?”

“Traffic”

Traffic, obviously meaning having arrived at Wayne Enterprises 30 minutes ago, and deciding that it would be a good idea to look for the class. So for 30 minutes, Robin was out on the streets, forgetting the fact that Tim was probably murdering Dick. After 20 minutes, he located the class’s bus and followed it until it parked in front of his father’s building. It was then that he checked the time, realizing that the French had arrived 10 minutes late to their meeting, which meant that he was at least 20 minutes late to saving Dick.

“Well, it doesn’t matter. Go and give the coffee to Tim before he returns with the axe he promised”

“He said he was going for an ax?”

“Yeah, said that he would be using it to get rid of a dick”

“A dick?”

“My dick”

“Oh”

Almost as if being summoned, the door was thrown open just at that moment, by a very horrendous looking Tim. On his hands, he was holding what he promised, and there was a murderous glow in his eyes. He didn’t even blink when he saw Damian there, probably thinking of other ways to torture the newly arrived victim.

“Hey, Tim”

“Hello, little brat”

Tim gave some steps towards the other two Waynes, who in turn gave two steps backward.

“I’ve brought you something”

With that, Damian showed Tim the metallic container. The last one, in a trance, dropped the ax, took the coffee and left the room without closing the door.

“Well, that was fast”

“Let’s just be glad that all of this happened before the school arrived”

“Oh, shit, the school!”

Dick stood up behind the desk, jumped it over and left his destroyed office running, mumbling something about calling his secretary to see if the school had arrived.

Damian simply sighed before leaving too, making sure to close the door. Sadly, he did it a little too harsh, and almost immediately he could hear the sound of glass breaking inside the room.

Well, nothing that Dick couldn’t pay again.

When he arrived at the lobby, the class and his brothers were already there. Tim was talking to one of the receptionists, while Dick tried catching the youngsters’ attention. Damian could see blonde boy, looking clearly uncomfortable by the brunette hanging on his arm. The times the blonde tried pulling away, the brunette and her friends would pull him back once more.

Damian honestly pitied him. He had dealt with clingy girls and boys ever since he went to Bruce’s events, and most of them didn’t know what boundaries meant.

But the fact that the angel was nowhere to be seen stopped him from even thinking about helping blonde boy.

He scrunched his eyebrows as he put a hand to his temple, trying to calm himself down. He had asked blonde boy to take care of her, why was she not there?

Tim was by his side, his face deadpan as he drank his coffee.

“Everything ok, brat?”

“Yeah. I just need to take care of something. Tell Dick that I’ll be back in some minutes”

Damian walked past the class and out the building, already preparing himself to wear the Robin suit for a second time that day.

////////////

It honestly wasn’t that hard to find her.

He just went back to the hotel and started looking from there, following the main streets. In 10 minutes, he had found her, sitting on a bench with tears streaming down her face. He considered going to see her as Damian but decided that Robin would be more reasonable. Damian Wayne had no reason to go out of his way to help crying girls.

He jumped down a building, landing some meters away from her. He had tried being silent, but being out in the day wasn’t one of his strengths. The angel had turned around to look the source of the sudden noise, her eyes growing in size when she saw the masked hero.

She hugged herself as if trying to protect herself from an unexistent evil.

Robin guessed that she probably didn’t feel that safe with him there, she was a stranger to Gotham’s hero. Even if she had lived her whole life in that city, he knew that she would still be scared of Robin.

“Hey there”, he said with the softest voice he could make, a small smile on his lips.

Was he being weird? Maybe the smile was doing it too much, he didn’t want to look like a complete psychopath. But if he didn’t smile then he would be a sociopath. To be the Joker or the Batman, which was worse?

The Batman, no doubts.

So, he kept the smile on.

“Hi…”, she muttered, eyeing him warily.

“A-are you ok?”

Gosh, he sounded like an idiot. Did she even understand him? There was no way she actually spoke more English than the widely known “Hi” and “Hey”. She had spoken to him in French when he was Damian, he should have remembered that.

“Yeah”

Forget expectations, her voice and her accent combined was probably the cutest thing that he had seen or heard in his entire life. Other than her, of course. More importantly, she answered him. It seemed that the angel had fooled him, and she could speak at least basic English.

“Are you sure? Sorry for intruding, but you don’t seem like you are”

The angel did the most unlikely thing and snorted.

Yep, she had confirmed it, he actually sounded like a stupid stalker.

He felt the heat rise to his face, suddenly very grateful that at least he had a mask on that covered part of his face. He put up a hand, scratching the back of his head.

“Well, things are… complicated”

Once more, that thick accent of hers. The r was his favorite part of it, sounding so different from what he was used to. He wondered how “Robin” would sound like on her lips.

“You aren’t from around here, right?”, he said, trying to approach the subject from another angle.

“Is it that obvious?”

“Well, the accent kind of gives it away”

Both of them chuckled. She played with her hands; her eyes set on the floor.

“Is there any way I can help you?”

“I don’t want to bother you”

“You know, that’s kind of my job”

“Still, even heroes need to rest”

“Let me help, then I’ll rest”

Finally, the angel looked at him. Well, not directly, but at the mask. It was as if she was thinking of something, remembering something about the mask. Or maybe Damian was overreacting, and she was just looking at him. Either way, he was just glad he could see her eyes again.

“Well, do you know where Wayne Enterprises is? I was going there, but was left behind by my group”

Robin was feeling conflicted. He was happy that she had finally accepted his help but angry that her class had left her behind. He wanted to ask her about it but knew that it would be pointless. She had already said too much for her own comfort, and probably just wanted the whole encounter to be over.

“Of course. I can give you a ride if you want me to”

She seemed to doubt for a second, but at the end nodded. Robin couldn’t stop his smile from taking over his face.

“Great. If you’ll allow me, mademoiselle”

He knew his pronunciation wasn’t going to be the best. Still, had it really been that bad?

The angel had laughed. Yes, the most beautiful laugh, but it still hurt a little bit of his ego to see her react like that to his crappy French.

“Was it really that bad?”, he asked, a little bit flustered.

“It can improve, traffic light boy”

Now, it was Robin’s turn to laugh as he held onto her with his left arm.

“Traffic light boy?”

“You don’t like it? I don’t know your name yet”

“I am offended, mademoiselle. I am a celebrity in this country”

“Not my country”

“Touché”

He took out his grappling hook and flew themselves up to the nearest building, swinging themselves through the city. The angel stayed silent for the whole trip. She didn’t scream, or laugh nervously, instead, she simply smiled, enjoying the air on her face.

Of course, she was happy up there. An angel was made to fly, not to stay on the earth.

Sadly, two minutes later they had arrived at their destination.

“Here we are, mademoiselle”

“Thank you, traffic light boy”

“Robin”, he smiled, as he put her back down.

“Robin?”

“That’s my name. Or at least what everyone in this country calls me”

“Not my country”

Both of them were smiling like fools on the sidewalk. The passerby was giving strange looks to the hero, but Robin couldn’t care less. He was having the greatest conversation ever with the angel, and he wouldn’t change it for anything.

“Le rouge-gorge it is then”

“Le what?”

She giggled, a hand covering her beautiful smile.

“Goodbye, rouge-gorge”

“Don’t I get a name, mademoiselle?”

He didn’t tell her that he already knew that her name rhymed with everything good in the world. Neither did he tell her that he loved the name she had given him way more than the two names he already had.

His only answer was a soft giggle as she walked away from him, her pigtails happily bouncing.

“See you in a flash, Marinette”, he whispered to himself as he smiled watching her leave.


	6. Chapter 6

Marinette was happy.

And angry, and sad, and disappointed all at the same time. She just wanted to go to sleep, at least for a little bit, at least to have a small little dream of the rouge-gorge.

The moment he had appeared, she was probably having one of the worst days of her life. As if lately every day hasn’t been the worst day. She had tried calling Adrien, but it immediately went to voice mail. Then, she thought about contacting her parents, but what would they be able to do?

Lastly, she thought of Alya. Maybe she would answer her call, after all, Marinette always answered when her old friend needed something from her. Before pressing the green button on her cellphone, she turned it off, already knowing what her answer would be.

But Marinette wouldn’t give up. She was supposed to be Ladybug, the heroine of Paris. At the moment, she just felt like Marinette, the girl who didn’t seem to be able to keep a friend by her side.

So, with that thought in mind, she had gotten lost. It wasn’t on purpose, at least not at first. She had tried remembering the city maps that they had been shown before arriving in Gotham, but there was no way she would be able to remember everything.

She had tried asking some people on the streets, but most of them ignored the young girl. And then, the thought sparked to her mind. The thought that well, if she actually got lost in Gotham, would there really be anyone that got worried because of her?

It was crazy when she thought back on that moment some hours later. Her parents, her grandparents, Adrien, Tikki, Chat Noir. They would all get worried if for some reason she got lost or harmed.

But at that moment that didn’t really matter.

All that mattered was that she was alone, that she couldn’t be the Ladybug that she needed at that moment.

Marinette walked towards the nearest bench and allowed herself to fall down on it. She could feel the way that the tears started growing on her eyes, but she paid them no attention. Tikki, from her purse, pressed herself towards Mari’s thigh, probably trying to act as a small form of comfort.

Right then, if Hawkmoth was in Paris, she would have allowed herself to become an Akuma. She wondered if Chat Noir would be able to stop her.

Everything inside her was dark, and lonely.

But then he appeared.

The light came back.

The vigilante didn’t come out of nowhere. She was sure that just as she used to do it in her Ladybug suit, he had dropped down from one of the near buildings around the park.

But for her, he had appeared as if magic. As if he was an angel. Her angel, seeking to help her.

The whole trip with him had been dream-like. It was as if nothing other than her and him existed as if they were the only ones in that cruel world that started to seem a little kinder.

And just as it had started, it ended, with her leaving the guardian angel behind.

She went inside the Wayne Building, a little smile placed on her face. She knew that she was red on the apple of her cheeks, she had seen herself reflected in the glass doors. Marinette had liked that little chat with him. What’s more, she had loved it. She wanted to see him again. Soon.

Sadly, all those happy thoughts were erased as soon as she bumped into Rose, tiny little Rose, who almost fell down because of the way they almost crashed. The blonde girl let out a little “ouch” out of pain, which attracted everyone’s attention.

Suddenly, the world had become once again very dark and lonely, only that this time Mari could feel the eyes of her classmates on top of her.

“She’s here”

“She shouldn’t be”

“I had hoped she had gotten lost”

“Maybe we can convince Madame Bustier to take her back to Paris after the way she attacked Rose”

“Let’s do that!”

Everyone started agreeing with that crazy idea. Was it Kim who said it? Or Alix? Their voices all sounded too similar when they were full of hate.

But Marinette hadn’t even attacked Rose. They had just bumped, it had been an accident, the blonde should know it. But Rose just kept silent, her eyes on the ground as she held onto Juleka as if she was the one being attacked.

“No, guys, I’ve got a better idea”

Lila spoke as if she had a crown on top of her head (which she probably did, except that, Marinette was the only one that couldn’t really see it). Her eyes were too happy, too malicious. And by her side, stood Adrien, who seemed to be creating a plan to get out of there. It probably involved jumping out a window.

As their eyes locked, a little bit of their hearts started crying in joy. They simply smiled at each other, but they each could see the love and care the other had.

Mari tried walking up to him, but Ivan and Kim blocked her way.

“You know you can’t keep abusing of him, right?”, Kim said.

“Excuse me?”

“It is obvious that he doesn’t want to be your friend or anything of yours. Leave him the hell alone”

Just at that moment, something inside Marinette was gone for good. There was no way that she would continue accepting that sort of treatment from those idiots, much less if she knew that she wasn’t a completely horrible person. After all, no superhero would help a completely despicable person, right?

Right.

If the class wanted to play like that, so would she. If they were going to be abusing and treating Adrien like a puppet, then she had every right to attack them as they had attacked her and her friend.

“No, Kim, you all should leave us alone. Are you so far up Lila’s ass that you can’t even see that Adrien and I are friends? Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to save my friend of that fox’s arms”

Kim and Ivan stared at her, their mouths hanging open.

“Ivan, dear, close your mouth. You wouldn’t want any flies to be in there for the next time you kiss Mirelle”

Without even blinking, she walked up to Adrien. Lila never lost her smile.

“You know, Mari, maybe we should leave you here in Gotham so that the Joker can catch you as his next victim”

Lila didn’t realize that she had spoken too loud, or even, that she had said so in a room full of people that probably understood French. And the ones who didn’t, couldn’t miss the villain’s name. Loud enough for all the people in the building’s lobby to go quiet and turn their gazes to the girl who had just said that she would leave her classmate to the worst psychopath on Earth.

Mari wasn’t the only one who noticed the silence.

But, Lila tried once again to save her sorry ass from the pit she had been digging.

Her hand that wasn’t grabbing onto Adrien went immediately up to her face, trying to cover it so that people wouldn’t see her smile as she faked her tears.

“How could you say that to me, Mari?”, she said, changing the tone of her voice on purpose. “I thought that we were friends!”

Marinette scoffed; the Americans were seemingly starting to doubt if they had heard correctly. She wondered if they knew that it had been Lila the one who mentioned the Joke, or if they had just heard a single voice without an owner.

Meanwhile, the class knew very well who had said what. But they didn’t care. They didn’t think of it as much of a big deal as the Americans.

From the corner of her eye, she could see security walking up to them.

Where was her guardian angel when she needed him?

“I… I never said that”, she whispered more to herself than anyone else.

Nervous, she drew a step back, only to bump into another person.

Said person was tall, so tall that Mari barely reached their shoulders. He had dark hair, combed back, and was wearing an equally dark suit. Even though his attire was formal, he was wearing a lazy smile on his face, and his hands were inside the pockets of his suit.

“Is there any problem here, miss?”, he said, smiling down at Marinette with his bluish eyes. “Any way that I can help?”

Lila, never slow to catch anyone’s attention, started her dramatic tantrum.

“I am so glad you came! You see, my friends and I were on our way to meet with the Wayne’s. They had prepared a tour just for us since I am a dear old friend of them, but on our way, our classmate Mari started bullying us and speaking badly of the Wayne’s. Sadly, I had to tell her that she was no longer allowed inside the building, and because of that, now she is saying that she wishes for me to be a victim of the Joker! Please, help us get her away from the building before anyone gets offended or hurt”

She had said the lie so easily, it rolled off the tip of her tongue within a matter of seconds. Some of the class caught that, mainly Max and Nino, but they stayed silent. Still, Marinette could see how doubt was growing in their eyes.

Well, at least if she got thrown out of the building she would have new allies by her side.

Meanwhile, Adrien took that moment to free himself from Lila’s grasp, and almost immediately ran towards Marinette and hugged her. He said something to her, but he was talking too fast for her to actually understand him.

“I’m okay, Adrien”, she whispered to him.

“Well, then, this is a very serious case, isn’t it?”, said the young man behind her, never once losing the smile on his lips.

“Yes, sir. Please, if you could, ask the authorities to get her out of the building, we wouldn’t want her to hurt anyone”

“This is even more serious than I thought”, he said, more to himself than anyone else. “Security, could you please come here and help me with the young lady”

As the big men approached her, Mari knew that the trip of the day was over for her. Lila held a victorious smile, and Adrien tried pleading to the stranger, saying that Marinette hadn’t been the one to say those awful things.

Mari closed her eyes, ready to be taken away, when Lila started screaming.

“What are you doing? It is she who you are supposed to take! Let me go! If the Waynes get notice of this, they will get very mad! They’ll fire you all!”, she screamed as she kicked at the guards, while the dragged her as if she weighed a feather.

“Yes, you are right, If the Waynes got notice of this, they would get really mad. But fire them? No, I don’t think so. My father wouldn’t fire anyone for doing the right thing”

The stranger kept his easy smile as Lila was thrown out of the building. Once the doors were closed, he turned his attention to the rest of the group.

“Hello, guys. My name is Richard and I’ll be your tour guide for the day. Before starting, I just want to clear off some things. One, my family and I have never had any sort of relationship with that girl, so you shouldn’t believe everything she says. I am sure that my father will take appropriate measures to take care of it.

“Two, here in Gotham, we take villains very seriously, so, don’t you even dare threaten anyone with anything related to a villain or terrorist, not even as a joke. And lastly, you all are on a probation period inside the building and in Gotham.

“If you ever dare to hold any of your classmates against their will, or put anyone in danger once more, then we’ll get you a flight back to whatever hellhole you came from. And don’t worry, we’ll know if you break the rules. With those things cleared, the tour is very long, so be ready to walk for at least thirty minutes or so”

The stranger, Richard, went straight into tour guide mode, saying random facts about the building’s architecture and history. As if he hadn’t just threatened the whole class stated that his father was Bruce Wayne, got Lila out of the building, all while acting as the most casual dude ever, the type of guys you could find in a fraternity party.

Marinette and Adrien decided at that same very moment that they liked Richard. A lot.

“Thank you”, Mari said to him as the class went to leave their things in the building’s lockers.

“There’s nothing to be thanked, it was the right thing to do”, he said, the smile disappearing as he stared towards the class.

“Can I ask, how did you know about what happened back in the hotel?”

“Well”, he smiled as if he knew something that Mari didn’t. “A little birdie told me”.

With that, Richard, started the tour, Adrien and Marinette following closely behind.


	7. Chapter 7

There weren’t many things that made Damian scared. He was scared of his family, and there had been a time where he had been scared of what the Joker could do to him. But now, he wasn’t that scared anymore. With years of training and growing both emotionally and physically, he had finally understood that there was no such thing as being scared of something to the point of freezing.

There was no need for fear.

Except when he had to speak to what seemed like the most beautiful person in the whole Universe. Then he was really scared. It was something he had never felt before, never had he felt his stomach as if it was inside a rollercoaster while the rest of his body had been left behind. His hands had never shaken so much, and his face had never felt so red.

He had talked to her before. He even had a conversation with her and gained himself a new nickname, but for some reason, it just wasn’t the same. It was so different speaking to her through the mask compared to speaking as… well, just Damian.

What if she didn’t like him the way she had liked Robin. Maybe she just laughed with him because she was in the presence of a hero and she didn’t want to make him feel bad.

Or maybe she wouldn’t be like that. Maybe she would like Damian even more, what then? What about Robin?

They were two parts of a whole, and there was something inside Damian that told him that if she didn’t like him completely, the two parts included, there would be no way that they could grow closer to each other.

Grow closer, as if she would stay in Gotham for the rest of her life.

As if he wasn’t in mortal danger just by the mere fact of existing.

“Is everything alright?”

Damian blinked, returning to the real world.

He had been standing right next to Dick as he explained something about the vitrine to his right, not really paying attention. The students also didn’t seem that interested in learning about the way that the Wayne family became so important.

Something must have happened between that moment and where he was now, because there was no group of students chattering in front of him. Neither was Dick standing by his side. They probably left the hall some time ago, since he couldn’t even hear the echoes of their voices. How long had Damian been standing there looking like a fool?

He just hoped she hadn’t seen him. What if she thought of him as an idiot? He hadn’t even had the chance to speak to her once he arrived at the building, because there was simply no excuse to do so. She probably didn’t even remember the whole alley and the Love Alarm thing.

“Hey? You okay?”

The voice once again brought him to his senses. In front of him, was the blonde boy, with the weirdest expression Damian had ever seen directed at him. Was that… worry?

“Yeah, I just went blank for a second”

Apparently, a little calmer since he had now answered, the blonde gave a little chuckle.

“For a second? You were like that for at least five minutes”

The blonde boy smiled easily. As if he was speaking to an old friend he hadn’t seen in a long time, the kind of friend that you want and need in your life. Damian wondered if he would still smile that easily if he knew that the same boy that almost choked him was now standing in front of him.

“Well, it felt like a second to me”

Once again, the blonde boy smiled and looked towards the end of the hall.

“Now that you are out of your trance, could you help me? I think I lost my friend”

“Your friend?”

“Yes, that’s why I stayed behind. She was supposed to go to the bathroom, but she didn’t come back”

“And here I was thinking you stayed behind for me”, Damian replayed with sarcasm as he stretched his back. Did having an existential crisis consume so much energy that his muscles went sore? He needed to ask Alfred about that, although he was sure that the old man would just go ahead and have a laughing spree because of his question.

Blonde boy laughed.

“Well, yes, for you too. But now you are fine, and my friend isn’t here, we should look for her”

“Yes, yes, I understood the first time. What’s her name?”

“Marinette”

“Shit”

“What?”

“Nothing”

At that moment, Damian realized a lot of things he should have realized before having that conversation with blonde boy.

Number one, he knew blonde boy, hell, he had almost even choked him, because Robin had been looking for Marinette and all he found was her friend. So, of course, the friend he would be speaking of would be her.

Number two, if he had really been having a crisis for the past five minutes or so, then that probably meant that Marinette had been missing for the past five minutes or so. Not enough for a villain to take hold of her, but enough to get lost in the Wayne building. Lost like lost on an island with no communication kind of lost.

Number three, there was nothing to worry about because there were cameras in the building.

Number four, there was so much to worry about because he hadn’t even stepped into the building for the last two years, which meant that the only person inside that building that would actually grant him permission to see the cameras would be Dick.

His half brother Dick. The same guy that thought that words were the solution to world hunger. Stupidly over-kind Dick.

Even if he was actually disposed to ask his brother for help, the older boy had continued with the tour, already in who-knows-where. If Damian had taken more attention to the tour summary that he had been given by Dick when he arrived to the building, instead of making googly-eyes to a certain someone, he would probably be able to know where Dick was at that moment.

Robin would be able to know where Dick or Marinette were in a matter of seconds. But he wasn’t Robin, not at the moment at least.

“You said she had gone to the bathroom?”

“Yes”

“Do you remember how long ago?”

“I don’t know, maybe ten minutes?”

“I thought you had said five”

“No, you were gone for five minutes”

“I know”

“Then why do you ask?”

If this had been a cartoon, there would be a vein popping out of Damian’s head. The only reason he hadn’t already punched the blonde boy was because he was Marinette’s friend and because honestly, he just looked like a sad little puppy that had just been picked up from the streets.

“Forget it. This is a big building with a lot of people, which means that best-case scenario she isn’t far from here”

“And the worst-case scenario?”

“She walks very fast and got into the elevator for god knows what reason”

“Oh”

“Exactly. I think I can ask some people if they have seen her, mainly security guards, but we’ll have to do most of the search by ourselves”

“Don’t they have cameras or something?

“I don’t have the authorization to check those”

“Oh”

“Yeah, anyway, we should probably start actually searching… Uhm…”

Had blonde boy given him his name when they met the first time? Damian couldn’t really remember. And even if he did, it would have seemed weird for a stranger to suddenly know his name when he supposedly just met blonde boy.

“Adrien, and you are?”

“Damian”

The two boys nodded to each other, and just like that, started searching, with Damian leading the way.

The Wayne building was bigger than he remembered. They were currently on the second part, the “tourist zone” as Dick used to call it. It honestly looked more like a museum than a company with offices. The floor was of black marble, and the lights were dimmed, probably to protect the pieces that were exhibited on the floor.

Apparently, the history of Wayne Enterprises was of interest to some people, because even in down season (it always is down season in Gotham) you could find somebody in the second floor.

Dick had explained to Damian that the reason was because most companies that were looking to have a deal with Wayne Enterprises thought that it would be a good idea to visit the building constantly, thinking that it would give them a good image. It normally didn’t, but that didn’t stop them.

Other than companies and office workers, some schools would go to the building from time to time. Schools in Gotham took the second floor as an opportunity to teach about the city’s history, and the economy and income of most of the people that lived in the hellhole. Schools from other cities or countries went there because Bruce Wayne made his last name a famous name.

So, the second floor had been remodeled over and over again to accommodate the needs of its visitors. There were some couches here and there, as well as signs of “bathrooms” and “exit”. There was a security guard every ten or so meters, protecting the historical items exhibited, the few pieces of art used as decoration, and of course, the people themselves. As if some 10 guards with tasers would do much harm against the Riddler or Bane.

But, those same guards should be exceptionally good at finding lost people.

“We should ask them if they have seen her”

“Good idea Damien”

After a small chat with the guards in which Adrien described Marinette almost perfectly, all the information that they got was that yes, they had seen her get out of the bathrooms, and that she had gone to the elevators, probably looking for the tour group.

The boys left the floor being promised by the guards that they would alert the people on the other floor, so that if someone saw her, the guards would be able to tell the boys.

So, to the third floor it was.

Adrien took that moment as the perfect time to start asking questions. They were alone in the elevator, and when they arrived at the third floor, there were only business women and men walking franticly with papers and computers in their hands.

“You never explained why you are working here”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, aren’t you our age? Shouldn’t you be out with your friends or in school?”

They went through the cubicles, through the small lunchroom, and to the bathrooms (they asked a female worker to go inside the women restrooms in their place). There was no sign of dear old Marinette, and the guards of the third floor said that no one had found her yet.

“I… don’t really have much friends. And today is Saturday, so, no school”

“I understand. I didn’t have friends until I met Marinette and the class, although now it’s only her and me against the world”

“Dick told me about the event in the entrance. Is it related to it?”

“Yeah”

So, Damian’s theories were right, and the class was harassing and bullying Marinette. If what happened earlier that morning was any indication of the class relationship with the duo, it must be a really toxic environment for the both of them.

“Can I ask why? I mean, it isn’t that common, is it?”

“No, it isn’t common. Or at least it shouldn’t be”

They went inside the elevator and pushed the button for the fourth floor.

“Was it always like this?”

“No. There was a time, some years ago, where we all got along well. Everyone used to love Marinette, she was the class president and the perfect friend”

“What changed?”

“Well, Lila arrived”

In the fourth floor, the guards told them that the guards of the fifth floor had already seen Marinette. Apparently, they had spoken with her and she had said that after going to the bathroom, she didn’t find anybody and assumed that she was left behind again. One of the guards took her with the group, who were currently on the ninth floor.

Back in the elevator, they pressed the button for their new destination, both boys already calm now that they knew where Marinette was.

“Lila is the girl that was thrown out, right?”

“Yeah. She is a compulsive liar, and as soon as she arrived, started lying to everyone about… well everything. She said that she knew all these famous people, like the Waynes, and that spent so much time helping organizations and politicians to make the world a better place. Everyone fell in love with her lies”

“Did you all fall for them that easily?”

The elevator was taking longer than expected. Between the fourth and the ninth floor, there were many adults going in and out the elevator. They had barely arrived to the seventh floor, and were waiting for some guys to get in.

“Not all. Marinette and I didn’t, so she decided to confront her. The class thought that she was being mean, and with Lila saying that Marinette bullied her when nobody was watching, it didn’t take that long until everyone took Lila’s side”

“And you? What did you do?”

The people inside the elevator had left, going down on the eight floor. Only one more floor to go, and they would be back with the group and Marinette. Adrien gulped very visibly.

“I…”

The elevator stopped, the lights went off, and a red tint illuminated the small compartment. Suddenly, the elevator felt even smaller than how it originally was. The boys looked at each other, alarm in their eyes, and started trying to call someone with their cellphones. No one picked up, and after some failed messages, they realized there was no reception.

Damian tried pushing the buttons to open the elevator, but they were stuck. He called for the emergency button, but nobody answered. He thought about donning the suit, but decided that a stuck elevator wasn’t a good enough reason to reveal his identity to Adrien. He could make him lose consciousness, but that would only look suspicious.

They were alone, with no reception on their cell phones, and no Robin to help them. What a day to be alive.

“I don’t think we are going to get off any time soon”, Damian sighed after failing at every possible form of contact.

“Is that normal?”

“Not really. But well, there’s not much we can do. You aren’t scared of elevator, right?”

“Nope”

“Good. So, as you were saying?”

Adrien sat down in the left corner of the elevator, and Damien went towards the other end. He crossed his arms as he watched him. Adrien looked nervous, as if he didn’t want to say what really happened.

“Adrien?”

He sighed and scratched the back of his head.

“Sorry, I got lost for a moment. As I was saying, Marinette tried confronting Lila, but it didn’t really work. I stupidly told her to leave Lila be, since she wasn’t hurting anyone, I thought. So for two months, I also allowed Lila to do whatever she wanted. Until I realized how much she was hurting Marinette.

“I still cared for her, so I decided that enough was enough and confronted Lila. She cried and ignored my words. When I went back to my house, my father was sitting in the living room with Lila. He told me that either I continued being friends with Lila, or me and Marinette would be punished”.

“Wait”, Damian interrupted, “how would he be able to punish Marinette?”

“My father is a very important person in the fashion industry, and Marinette’s dream is to make a career through fashion. So, either I continued hanging out with Lila, or Marinette’s future would be destroyed. I know that the damage Lila was doing to her was horrible, but I wasn’t able to leave Marinette destroyed for the rest of her life. She is good at designing, and I know she’ll change fashion history. I couldn’t take that future away from her.

“So I play along with my father and Lila for some other months. But then, another important fashion icon came to the city, Audrey Bourgeois, who has even more influence over fashion than my father. She discovered Marinette and offered her an internship here in America as soon as she finished school. Mari accepted and with that, there was nothing that my father could do to ruin her.

“I confronted Lila and told her that I didn’t care what happened anymore. I went to Marinette and told her everything. It took me time to get back her trust, but now… now I will do anything to make sure she stays happy. My father threatened me again, but I said that if he didn’t leave the both of us alone, I would make public some information that would affect the both of us and the company. So, he finally shut up.

“Now, Lila is saying to everyone that Mari is a whore that stole me, and that she is threatening me to stay by her side. They are all dumb lambs, so of course they pay attention. But at least Mari and I aren’t separated anymore”

Adrien shrugged and gave one of his stupid smiles.

“So, yeah, that’s the story”

Damian decided that if he ever saw that Lila again, she would be killed by his own hands.

The lights of the elevator came back, and it started moving again. Adrien and Damian stood up, waiting for the doors to open.

“I am sorry”, Damian said, looking straight towards the doors.

“Why? You weren’t there, honestly, you don’t even know us”

“But I do know you now, and you aren’t that bad”

“Same back to you”

From the corner of his eye, Damian could see how Adrien was basically wagging his non-existent tail from one side to the other. He really was a lost puppy.

“I don’t know how much longer you’ll be in Gotham but- “

“Three weeks”

“Three? Well, as I was saying, if you ever need help, Dick and I will be there for you to kick out Lila from Gotham if it is necessary”

“Thank you”

The boys shook their hands as the elevator doors opened.

All they could see was the whole class tied up with tape on top of their mouths. In front of them, Marinette stood with the most confident stance Damian had ever seen.

She was giving her back to the class, and instead, was facing straight towards the Riddler.

“Shit”, the boys murmured at the same time.


	8. Chapter 8

“I mean, honestly! Who told you that was your tone?”

“One of my so called friends”

“Well, cut them off. Whoever told you that emerald green goes well with your hair is clearly a toxic person”

“Oh… You know what, you are right. I’ll kick that son of a bitch in the balls next time I see him”

“Yeah, do that!”

Marinette Dupain-Cheng didn’t live an ordinary life. She was Ladybug, the save and grace of Paris. When she wasn’t out superheroing, she was a student who tried to balance academics and bullying, as well as mantaining one of her only friendships. And the cherry at the top, was her up and ocming career as a designer. This last one took most of her sleep away, but it was worth it.

Yes, Mari had a strange life, but somehow she made it all work.

So when she found herself caught with her classmates in a building in another city of the world with a recognized Super Villain, she didn’t even bat an eye. What could she say, she was a designer for kwami’s sake! Not even Hawkmoth would allow a monstruosity like that suit to walk anywhere outside, much less exist.

Maybe it wasn’t the right thing to do. After all, anyone with any logic and her abilities would look for a chance to kick him in the butt. Instead, she decided to kick him where it most hurt: self-estheem. If anything, she was surprised by how the guy was even taking her seriously. It probably had something to do with how she had answered all his riddles correctly, even giving him multiple answers to some of them (answers that he hadn’t thought of before).

But now, she was confident that if anybody walked in on the scene, they would think Mari and the Riddler were old friends who had found each other in the middle of a heist. You know, a typical Saturday.

“The Penguin won’t know what hit him”, the Riddler said with his playful tone and strange entonation of words. Was that the way Gothanians spoke? It didn’t sound right to Mari’s ears, but she had already risked a lot by judging his outfit, she wasn’t going to also tell him the way he spoke was a disaster.

And who was the Penguin? Was that another of Gotham’s villains? If so, then Gotham didn’t only have weird outfits in the city, but also weird names. Like, seriously, the Riddler? The Penguin? Were those names from a random generator?

Let’s forget the stupidity of Paris’ Akuma’s names for a moment here. These people were supposed to be the most horrible living beings in the world and they thought they would be taken seriously with names like that? Ugh, the shame, the disgrace.

“Hell yeah, you go tell him!”

The Riddler seemed to be content with the way things were turning out. He had heard of the school visit to Wayne Enterprises, and he thought there would be no better way to catch Batman’s attention so that the old man would play some games with him. Worst case scenario, he didn’t show up and he would send one of his many pets; who sometimes offered a good enough entertainment to pass the day.

And instead, he had found this jewel in the form a blue eyed tiny girl.

Could he adopt her? Batman always adopted new batsies, he wanted a little riddler for his own.

He was so focused on the many fashion advises the girl was giving him that he didn’t notice the elevator opening doors and the two boys stepping out of it. Nor did he notice how one of Bat’s pets was waiting behind him for his chat to be finished before taking him to Arkham.

Marinette, on the other hand, had noticed the red and black hero standing behind the Riddler. Now that she was sure she and the others would be safe no matter what, it didn’t hurt to be a bit of self-promotion.

“You know what, I don’t live here, but while I’m staying in the city I could make you a new suit”, she said with her index finger on top of her lips, already thinking of the many alterations she would do to the suit.

The Riddler was fascinated by the idea and his eyes almost popped out of their sockets.

“Really? Oh, I would love that! How much would it be?”

“Huh?”

Mari was confused to say the least. Was a Gotham villain offering something in exchange for her services? That really didn’t make the class look well. If even a villain could have manners, she didn’t see why some french teenagers couldn’t.

“Yes, do you want money? I’m not sure I can get you some that’s legal, but if you want to get into the business of laundry money, it would be an investement!”

“No, thanks!”, Mari said hurriedly with her hands in front of her. “I don’t really need any money. Instead, you could help me by buying the fabrics themselves and any other pieces needed for the making of the new suit”

“Consider it done. Just text me what you need to this number”

From the suit’s inner pocket, he got out a little green business card with a giant question mark. On the back, there was his cellphone number written under the legend _For evil business only._

Before she took the card, the hero finally stepped in and took it from the Riddler’s hand. The hero cleared his throat, already impatient by the long exchange.

Once the Riddler saw him, the weight of the sudden change finally caught up to him.

“Shit. You know what, darling? Forget the number. It seems I’ll live in a new residency for a while”

“For your life”, the hero corrected.

The Riddler shrugged him off.

“That’s what you always say and yet here we are”, he said waving the hero off. The Riddler took one step closer towards Marinette which made everyone tense up. The Riddler turned his eyes at them. “Geez, calm down, I would never hurt this darling”

The hero was obviously not okay with the nearness of Mari and the Riddler, putting a hand on top of his belt, probably ready to take out any weapon if necessary.

“As I was saying, the change in residency may alter things a little. But you could always send a letter to Arkham, I’m sure this fine gentleman can give you the address, and I’ll make sure to send you the materials you need. How long do you think it’ll take?”

“Uhm”, Mari’s eyes jumped between the hero and the villain. The hero nodded, giving her the permission to go on with her business. “Normally it would take me more, but since I’m in vacation I guess it could take a week and a half? Tops two”

The riddler smiled showing all of his crooked teeth and he raised both his hands to the hero, ready to be taken away. The hero put handcuffs around his wrists and with no effort, carried the Riddler like a sac of potatoes.

“Great! Then I’ll see you in two weeks my dear”, the Riddler said while the hero walked towards the elevator.

“No, you won’t”, responded the annoyed hero.

“Come on Robin, I thought we had already gone over this. You always say the same thing, not even with a dramatic flare, and I-“

The doors of the elevator closing shut off their conversation from the group completely. To the left of the elevator was an open mouther Damian and a gleaming Adrien. The class was completely in silence with the exception of Nino who was trying to contain his laughter. And Richard, the tour guide, was fixing his hair using the reflection of a nearby mirror.

“Aren’t you going to say anything?”, said Alya, clearly hoping for more leadership from a certain someone.

“About what?”, answered Richard not even paying attention.

“I don’t know, maybe about the fact that we were just taken hostage by a freaking super villain, who may I add, was stopped because Marinette started critiquing his outfit and then offering to make him a new one?”, she cried.

The rest of the class nodded in agreement.

“Honestly? I’ve seen weirder shit in Gotham”, satisfied with the way his hair looked, Richard flashed the group one of his smiles. “Well now, if you follow me, to your right you will see my office. Please don’t ask why it was destroyed unless you are willing to help cleaning it”

At that point Nino just couldn’t hold off his laughter anymore. The class followed Richard, trying to make sense of what had happened. Not even Akumas behaved that weirdly.

Nino, instead of following them inmediately as he usually did, stayed behind and gave Mari a pat on the back.

“That was awesome dude. I can’t wait to see what you’ll make for him”

“Thanks?”

Nino walked away, cleaning the tears that had fallen on his face because of the laughter, leaving behind an amused Marinette.

Adrien was the next to run to her. He hugged his friend from the back while laughing.

“You are incredible. Emerald green? Really?”

“Come on, as if you hadn’t seen it too”

“I mean, I did, but I don’t have enough balls to tell that guy that his hair doesn’t go with his suit”

“It was a matter of showing respect”

“It was a matter of showing off”

“Shut up!”

The two friends started walking towards the tour while chuckling and playing with each other.

Behind, Damian had finally found a way to close his mouth. He walked behind the duo, shrugging his head as he accepted what had happened. He was already thinking of how many problems that new suit would cause for him and the others, but at least the chatter had stopped the Riddler before things got even crazier.

Adrien, noticing how Damian was left behind, stopped dead in the ground until his new “friend” caught up to them (don’t judge the little puppy). Marinette, although surprised, didn’t give it a second thought. If Adrien thought he was a good person, he probably was.

“Come on Damian, you are walking too slow”, Adrien hurried him.

Damian simply raised an eyebrow, not even daring to comment anything that would make the puppy or Marinette mad.

Once he was caught up to them, the three continued walking behind the class who was already several steps ahead of them.

Mari, curiously, tried seeing Damian’s feautures more clearly. For some reason, he looked familiar to her. And as much as she tried seeing what was so familiar of him, she couldn’t find it.

 _Gothanians_ , she thought. _They all look alike._

///////////

The tour had ended rather abruptly because of the events. The Riddler’s takeover the building and how he was defeated by a pigtailed girl (thanks to the video recording of one of the parisians trapped inside) was all it took for the nearest news stations to run to the building, seeking for the opportunity to be the first one to interview the mysterious saviour.

The Waynes and the school decided that having a student who interacted with a villain go on the city’s news wasn’t a good idea. Who knew if there would be any other villain interested in a change of wardrobe.

So Richard ended the tour and sent the class out through the employee’s entrance. Madame Bustier told them that since the tour would originally last most of the day, they would be free to enjoy the nearby sites until the bus came back for them.

The class divided in little groups which dispersed all through the many streets that surrounded the Wayne Enterprises building, much to the discomfort of Richard and his brother Tim. The two of them didn’t like the idea, but ultimately decided that it would be best if they finally were free of the chaotic class.

Lila didn’t come back. She had payed a taxi to bring her back to the hotel, where she spent the day sulking for being caught. The rest of the class was too busy talking about the Riddler to mind.

Finally away from the rest, Adrian and Mari decided to go to one of the nearby’s little coffe shops. But before leaving, they offered Damian to go with them and take a break from the office work no teenager should have.

Damian made some weird face gestures at them, while Richard and Tim made it obvious that they would prefer it if the younger boy also left. After some minutes of consideration, he told them that he would catch up with them in half an hour since there was some stuff he needed to take care of first.

Mari simply accepted his response, not really affected. On the other hand, Adrian was clearly sad and begged Damian to come with them for two minutes until Mari grabbed him by his shirt’s collar and took him to the coffee shop.

Now, sitting in front of the coffe shop’s window, each with a mug of tea and coffee, they chatted. Or more like Adrian sulked for the lack of a certain black haired boy.

“I don’t understand why you wanted him to come so badly”, Mari sighed as she took a sip of her tea. “He doesn’t even know us”

“No, he doesn’t know you. He and I had a life changing experience while looking for a certain gal”

“Doesn’t matter, you can’t form any kind of relationship in less than an hour”

“Says the girl who made a villain her client in less than an hour”

“That doesn’t count, it was pure business”

“Well, I say it does. Why can you have your evil villain as a client but I can’t have an over exploited teenager as my friend?”

“At least my evil villain actually liked me”

“Damian did like me”, Adrian whined.

Even if Marinette didn’t admit it, she was also waiting for the boy to come. Hence, why they were sitting in front of the window which just happened to have the perfect view of the entrance of the Wayne Enterprises building.

“Yes, the way he rolled his eyes everytime you said something made it clear as glass that he likes you”

“He was being sarcastic. You know it’s not a necessarily bad personality trait?”

“Yeah, right”

“Mari, you are being sarcastic yourself”

“Shut up”

They chuckled followed by a simultaneous sip of their drinks. They sighed and continued staring at the window.

“Honestly, how long could it take him to come?”, Adrian continued complaining.

“He said it would be half an hour”

“Well, I’m sure it has been more than that”

“Yeah”, Mari set down on the table her empty cup. It was a red cup, and she liked it a lot. “I’m telling you Adrien, he probably dind’t like us. Stop waiting for Damian to arrive, I’m sure he was just looking for an excuse to make us leave”

Did Mari say that to convince Adrien or herself? No one will ever know.

As if destiny had heard her and decided she needed a little slap in the face, a hand knocked on their table. They had been way too busy complaining to notice a certain over exploited boy go in the coffee shop, certainly hearing Mari’s words.

“Yeah, Adrien, she’s right. I didn’t like you at all”

Damian was smiling down at both of them. Smiling just a little, almost impossible to see, but it did count as a smile. And just knowing that he had certainly heard the last bit of their conversation made Mari’s soul leave her body.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A song I was listening to while writing: Moving On, by Sarah and the Sundays.


	9. Chapter 9

Having a life based on crime wasn’t easy.

And unlike the children of cops or detectives, Damian was literally born from crime and justice. As a baby and a child, he was raised under the harsh rules from the most dangerous people on Earth. He knew how to hold a sword before he even learned how to talk. Some years later, he got to see the other side of his family. Damian learned that, unlike what the Western media will try to convince you, justice isn’t that far away from crime.

Turns out, justice is messy and bloody. Justice, some will say, may involve taking human lives. Others will disagree in the never ending battle, but even those aren’t afraid to use violence in order to get justice. The world isn’t divided into who is chaotic good, who is lawful evil. It is divided into those who are willing to do anything for justice and those who won’t.

Yes, justice is not a perfect little story you can tell millions of children at bedtime so that they grow up with the dream of defending it. But the ones who work for justice make it work, bloody knuckles and all.

Marinette didn’t belong in that world.

Since the elevator doors opened, Damian wanted nothing more but to run and get the innocent girl away from the Riddler. He wanted to punch him in the face, knock him out like all the other times. There were innocent people in that room, all waiting for whatever the Riddler had in store.

And one of them stood up before any of the heroes arrived and decided to speak out. Not for the sake of justice, but for the sake of fashion.

If you had told Damian a year ago that one day, just one day, fashion was going to stop a terrorist from doing what he willed with a group of students, he would have thought it was a joke.

But it wasn’t. And it had all been done by the same girl he found himself so obsessed with.

In fact, he was so obsessed that he had agreed to going to a coffe shop with her and little puppy guy. Tim and Dick didn’t let him go without being some pests, obviously, but even they were scared. Why would Damian Wayne of all people become obsessed with some girl?

After they managed to get out all of the students from the building, Robin and his three predecessors were in charge of cleaning up the mess that had been made. Before Mari had managed to speak out, the Riddler had already installed multiple traps on the whole floor for the punishments he would give for anyone that didn’t answer correctly to his riddles.

Thankfully, Marinette had intervened before that happened. But the traps were still there and they would never allow a worker from the building to pick it up for them. Sometimes cleaning was also part of the job.

So, there were them, four Robins locked in the same floor. Originally, only Tim and Damian were supposed to clean, but Dick decided to stay to start cleaning his office from the morning’s incident. And after seeing the news about how a girl that looked way too similar to the girl from the app incident, Jason had to jump in too to the fun.

Yes, this had to be Damian’s favorite day in his whole life. It may even be better than the day his own grandfather tried to kill him. Isn’t life just so wonderful.

“Demon spawn, please, don’t tell me that you have been stalking the pure girl”, was the first thing Jason Todd said as he got in from one of the opened windows.

“Idiot! I told you to close the windows before flies started coming in!”, Damian shouted to Dick, who was trying to see if the recently hung portrait of his girlfriend was straight.

It was. Content with himself and his work, Dick got out of his office leaving behind the completely destroyed furniture on the ground.

“I’m sorry baby bird, but I had to take care of my office”

“You sure did a great work at that Dickie”, snickered Tim who was now inside Dick’s office, admiring the disaster he had made. It was as if a tornadoe had gone through that room and only that room. Not even the Riddler made as big of a mess as Tim.

Offended, Dick picked up a colorful little gun pistol from the ground and pointed it at Tim. From the looks of it, it belonged to one of the Riddler’s traps, which meant that anything from confetti to fire could come out of the toy.

“I wouldn’t have to be here if it wasn’t for you”, he said as he took some steps closer to Tim.

Forgetting their brothers’ dilemma, Jason continued plaguing Damian with questions.

“So, it is her! What’s her name? Is she as beautiful as you remembered?”

Jason walked behind Damian, talking over his head like a little demon while Damian continued picking up the weapons from the floor. From what he could tell of Dick’s and Tim’s consistent bickering, he was the only one actually doing any work.

“Either you clean up or you leave”, he said as he pushed Jason away from himself.

But Jason was having the time of his life, and he loved being a little demon to demon spawn himself.

“Dick told me you were meeting her after cleaning up!”

Damian groaned and he looked back to see Dick, who was quite busy with convincing Tim to stay away from Kori’s portrait.

“Dick! That was none of your business you scumbag!”

Dick took some time to answer Damian as he was meditating wether firing the mysterious weapon was worth it. On the plus side, he would get Tim away from the portrait. On the cons, it could kill Tim.

“Sorry! But at least I didn’t tell him you were going with her and her boy friend!”

“Dick!”

But Dick lost complete interest in the conversation, going back to threatening Tim who already had one hand on the portrait.

It was like throwing gasoline to an open fire. Damian could already see Jason’s smile even through that stupid mask of his.

“Boyfriend?”, he exclaimed. “Boyfriend? Oh, now you are in trouble!”

“It’s not that kind of boyfriend”

“Damian, my dear, I know you are young but there’s only one type of boyfriend”, shouted Tim while examining Kori’s face under the light.

“I am that type of boyfriend! For the love of god, please leave Kori alone!”, Dick shrieked.

“Sorry, but I don’t believe in god”, Tim smiled.

The next events are still a mess in Damian’s mind. He can’t remember much of what happened. But the cameras recorded everything. Which is why the record from that particular day have been erased from the Wayne Enterprises’ computers. To this day, Alfred is the one of the only two people who have that tape. The other person is Bruce Wayne, who has it under the top secret folder in his computer in the Justice League’s space station. He likes looking at it when he’s bored.

But, if for some unexplained reason, that tape got into the hands of a poor, ignorant civilian it would look something like the following.

The vigilantes of Gotham all were in the same floor, some meters away from each other. The current Robin was clearly shouting something at the anti-hero Red Hood. Some meters away from them, Nightwing and Red Robin seemed to be in the middle of a duel. Nightwing was holding what looked like a watergun pointed at Red Robin, who was holding a picture in his hands.

To understand what happened, you would have to put it in slow motion.

Red Hood’s mouth wasn’t visible, so there’s no way of figuring out what he said. But he must have said something, since Robin punched him to the ground. Surprised by the sound of bones breaking, Nightwing accidentaly shot the weapon at Red Robin. The only thing that got out from the weapon were bubbles, but the sound scared Red Robin enough to drop the picture, inmediately shattering it.

Red Hood and Robin were still fighting in the ground. Nightwing, seeing the destroyed picture, jumped to attack Red Robin, who took some steps behind, not noticing where he stepped. The theory is that Red Robin must have stepped on one of the Riddler’s traps, detonating a secret bomb on the floor.

It’s at that point at the cameras are destroyed.

Some passerbies only heard a loud _thump_ and the next thing they know is that the 9th floor of the Wayne Enterprises’ building is on fire. Thankfully, there were no civilians at the time.

The four vigilantes woke up to the call of Bruce Wayne telling them to fix their mess. They ignored him. The next call they received was from Alfred. He didn’t have to speak before they started working. The 9th floor was clean in record time.

/////////

Maybe about 40 minutes later, Damian Wayne was sitting in a little table in a little coffee shop with Marinette and the puppy boy.

“What happened to your hand?”, Marinette pointed to his left hand which was covered in bandages.

“My brother”, he shrugged as if it demanded no more explanation. Mari and Adrien were happy with that simple explanation, which relaxed Damian. There was no way he was going to tell them that his brother broke his hand in return for him breaking his nose. Again.

“Do you get along with him?”, Adrien asked.

Damian raised an eyebrow at him. Didn’t he have any siblings? If he didn’t, then Damian would happily lend him all three of his. Cass and Barbs weren’t included, he didn’t consider them part of the family. They had way too many brain cells to be Waynes.

“Does it look like I do?”

“You must play with him, right? That’s why you got hurt”

“I’m sorry, but how old do you think my brother is?”

“I don’t know, five or six?”

Last time he checked, Jason was 22 years old. But five years just happened to be his mental age.

“How did you guess?”, Damian feigned surprise.

Adrien inmediately started beaming.

“I guessed? Wow! You see, Mari? I guessed!”

“Yeah, I suppose”, she chuckled.

Damian was puzzled by Mari. She didn’t act as if she remembered him, which he supposed was right. After all, it was already dark the first time they met. It would have been difficult to remember a stranger’s face. But then, why did she keep staring at him?

“So, how long are you going to be in Gotham?”

“Three weeks, unless the class makes any of the Waynes angry again” she answered.

“The Waynes?”

“Yes. A member of our class lied about knowing them and then said some threats, so the oldest son told us that next time the class fucks up something, we are out of Gotham”

She’s lying, Damian thought. Or well, not completely lying, but avoiding information. The girl dind’t just say some threats, she mentioned the most dangerous psycopath in the world. And the threat was directed specially to Marinette.

Why would she hide something like that from Damian? If Dick hadn’t told him about the little rascal, he wouldn’t have known at all.

But Mari didn’t know him, just like he really didn’t know her. There was no reason why she should trust him enough to tell him about her day.

“Do you know the Waynes, Damian?”

Oh, Adrien. Sweet, puppy Adrien. He knew way too much about the Waynes for his own comfort. But there was no reason why any of them should know about that.

He didn’t know them. There was no reason why he should trust them enough to tell them about his family.

And also, he was afraid that if they knew his last name, they would get way more worried about being the perfect students than actually being themselves. His name could wait for later.

“I know them”, he lied through his teeth. “I am an intern for Dick and Tim, the guys who gave you the tour today. That’s why I was there”

“And from where do you know them?”

Damian was starting to notice how Mari bobbed her head to the right whenever she asked a question. It was a small, little gesture, but it still was cute.

“My mother was an old friend of Bruce Wayne, so she convinced him to at least train me for the company”

Did that count as a lie? Damian didn’t think of it as it. Just like Mari, he wasn’t lying. He was simply avoiding over specific details.

“The magic of nepotism, am I right?”, Adrien said as he sipped on his newly arrived coffee. Not even two seconds after, his eyes went really big really fast and he started coughing. “I didn’t mean it like that! I am sure you are talented! I just- i- well-“

It looked as if Adrien was about to have a heartache. Mari laughed as she passed him some napkins to clean himself with.

“He doesn’t mean it that way”, she said in his place. “And if he did, well, he’s also a big participant of nepotism in France. Now you can bother him right back”

Damian smiled.

“Oh really? Who are you leeching of Adrien?”

“My father, although I am sure that what we have is child exploitation”

“That makes two of us”

Adrien and Damian got their drinks up, as if they were about to toast. They stared at Mari, waiting for her to say something.

“Oh, no!”, she laughed. “I’m sorry, but my parents actually care about me”

Damian took a sip from his drink, setting it back down on the table.

“Oh, unconditional love from parents”, Adrien dramatically sighed. “What does it feel like?”

“Cut it off!”, Mari snickered. She covered her mouth with one of her hands, out of courtesy most likely. Another cute gesture to the list.

“Oh, but you don’t understand! I’ve never even received a hug in my life!” Adrien continued.

“Well, I have never received a kiss on the forehead”, Damian played along with him.

“Or a pat on the back”

“A goodnight story”

“An incredibly shameful gift”

“Alright, alright! I’ll tell my parents to adopt you two if that will make you shut up”

The three of them laughed.

It was weird. Interacting with other people had never been so easy, so simple. It was the first time Damian actually laughed with someone his age.

 _Unconditional love_ , he thought as the three of them asked for more tea and coffee.

_It feels nice._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A song I was listening to while writing: Give Me the Simple Life, by Steve Tyrell.


	10. Chapter 10

_It feels nice._

Mari thought, laughing with the boys. Even though Damian hadn’t seemed that aproachable at first, Mari soon realized that he just had a different way of humor. A darker, more sarcastic way of having fun. It was different from what she was used to, but she was starting to like it.

They had stayed in the coffee shop for an hour before the bus arrived. They had said their goodbyes to Damian, and Adrien made him promise that he meet them soon. Damian said something along the lines of “damn puppy”, but he accepted. Adrien and him exchanged phone numbers and Damian left, probably avoiding being kidnapped by Adrien.

Adrien and Mari got into the bus together. This time, there was no one to make her stay behind. Nino and some others even gave them some small polite smiles. Nothing friendly like some years ago, but polite was better than nothing. Even Alya and Chloe, who had tortured Mari for so long, weren’t mean to Marinette. It seemed that a close encounter with the Riddler changed their opinions.

Speaking of the Riddler, Marinette had toyed with the idea of actually making something for him. Damian had mentioned that he had never seen the Riddler do something like that, even if he was one of the kind of nice villains in Gotham. Kind of nice for Gotham’s standards, of course. Marinette was sure that the Riddler was still worse than Hawkmoth, but hey, work was work, wasn’t it? And anyways, even if she didn’t do the work, she still helped the heroes by distracting the Riddler.

Still, she couldn’t imagine what Tikki would say to her as soon as she was on her own. The goddess probably wouldn’t be so happy about what had happened. Even on the bus, Mari could feel the weight of the tiny goddess in her bag. She just hoped she wouldn’t be reprimanded harshly.

On their way back, Adrien couldn’t stop talking about Damian and the Riddler.

“You should have seen his face when we saw you, he looked as if he was about to have a heart attack”

“Shouldn’t you have been the one worried for me?”, Marinette pointed out. Adrien simply shrugged.

“I already know you, Mari. You always find a way to get yourself out of any mess”

By working ten times as hard as everyone else, mind you. But yes, she was used to finding herself in difficult situations.

“But him, on the other hand…”

“What, Damian?”

“Yes! I was way more worried about him than you! His whole face went white, and once Red Robin took away the Riddler, I was sure he was going to puke”

“Puke?”

“I _think._ He had one hand on top of his mouth and he was muttering something, but I couldn’t catch it”

“You are too nosy for your own good”

“I was worried, ok? Geez, let me be”

Adrian crossed his arms on top of his chest and put out his tongue at her. Marinette poked him in the ribs, and just like that, they started laughing.

It was easy, being with him. There was no pressure to be or act normal, and she enjoyed it. And even with Damian there, nothing had changed. It may have even been better, if Mari thought about it. Having a trio instead of a duo didn’t seem like a bad idea.

But Mari was still confused by Damian. She was sure she had seen that face before, somewhere, but she couldn’t remember when.

“Adrien, doesn’t Damian look familiar to you?”

“All Americans look the same to me. At least the ones in Gotham, they all have black hair and blue or green eyes”

He wasn’t wrong.

Richard had black hair and blue eyes, just like Tim. And when Red Robin arrived, he looked the same. The guys even have the same body structure. Damian fitted that description, although his skin was darker than the others. And the Rouge-Gorge, Robin, had the same black hair as all the other guys. Mari couldn’t see his eyes, but she could bet anything that he also had green or blue eyes.

So much had happened on that day, that it felt as if it had been ages since she met Robin. But it was just some hours ago, and she couldn’t be more interested on the hero. He had been kind, and nice. Of course, it was part of his job, but it was still appreciated.

Mari smiled, remembering their small chat, and the view from the top of the buildings.

“What you thinking about? Are you also thinking about Damian’s green eyes, or is it just me?”

“Adrien!”, she laughed. “And no, I’m sorry, but I was not thinking about your dear Damian”

“It’s a shame”, he said. “Think about all the clothes that he could model. Maybe you could ask him to model your clothes next time we see him”

“And why would I ask him that?”

“Because he’s nice, funny, and you like him”

“What? No, I don’t”

Adrien furrowed his eyebrows, confused.

“You don’t? But you were staring at him all day! And you were blushing!”

“I was staring at him because he seemed familiar. And the tea was so hot it made me go red”

“So, you really don’t like him?”, Adrien asked, but didn’t wait ofr her answer. “Damn, and I was working so hard on getting you two together. I’m sorry, we don’t have to meet him if you don’t want to”

“No, Adrien”, she rested her head on top of his shoulder, trying to make him feel better. She knew how stressed he could get whenever he thought he made a mistake in their friendship. “I did like him, but not like _like_ him. He’s a good friend, and I did spend a good time with him. The both of us did”

“So, you still want to meet him?”

“As long as you are willing to, then yes. I want to make good memories of this trip”

“You’re right”, he nodded.

With Adrien obviously feeling better, Mari allowed her mind to drift off. But all her thoughts went back to Robin. She had so many questions about him, especially after she heard from Alya that all the Robins had been in the building to clean up the Riddler’s mess.

Did he know about what she did? Of course he knew, Red Robin probably told him. She could only think about his reaction to her actions. Maybe he recognized her as the crying girl form the morning, or maybe she was just another citizen. She hoped she wans’t the latter. But if he did remember her, and if he was disappointed in her for doing business with the Riddler, then she hoped he didn’t remember her.

“Adrien? You know about Gotham’s heroes, don’t you?”

“They also caught your eye?”

Mari nodded against his shoulder.

“Finally! I was wondering how you could continue ignoring the greatest heroes in the world!”

“Even better than Ladybug and Chat Noir?”

“They are the best in the universe”, he ended the discussion before it even began. Mari chuckled, she knew just how protective he was of the Parisian heroes. “What do you want to know about them?”

“I want to know about Robin”

“Which one? There are four of them, although there have been more in the past”

“Really? They should get new names”

“Tell that to Batman”

“Maybe I will”, she grinned, imagining what a conversation with the greatest goth in the world would be like. Not that different from the one she had with the Riddler, she supposed. “I want to know about _the_ Robin, the one that’s working right now”

“The youngest you mean?”

“I think so”

“Well”, he began. “He has been working as Robin for three years now, I think. When he first arrived he wasn that… _liked_ by the city, unlike the original Robin. He seems to be the most violent of all the heroes, even more than Red Hood. I saw some videos on youtube where he was caught fist fighting with Batman. Then, there was this audio clip in which he was insulting his predecessor, Red Robin. And I don’t think the police department likes him that much”

Mari’s heart dropped hearing all those things about him. He had seemed so nice and kind to her… it was a shame. She had hoped he would be one of the best Robins, but it seemed as if her first impression of him was wrong.

She was about to drop the conversation completely, but Adrien continued.

“However, he has a very big group of followers. Mostly inmigrants, children, minority groups, and women. Basically, everyone that isn’t protected by the law in Gotham. He has saved many people falling into those categories, so they appreciate it. I think he once created a twitter just to say his opinion on the President’s anti-inmigrant and racist laws”

“The President?”

“The one in the White House. Of course, the twitter was soon taken down by the government, but he became the image for most civil rights marches in Gotham and other big cities”

“So, he’s an icon?”

“You could say so. I think he’s the type of person that you can love or hate, nothing in between”

The bus stopped. They had arrived to the hotel, and the sky was starting to get dark. Madame Bustier told them to go to their rooms, or to the hotel’s buffet if they were hungry. In the hotel’s entrance, Lila was waiting for them with fake tears on her eyes.

“Guys!”, she cried. “I missed you so much! I can’t believe I had to stay here because of Marinette!”

“Excuse me?”, Mari answered right back.

“If you hadn’t arrived to bother Adrien, I wouldn’t have said what I said! I knew it was wrong, I just wanted to protect Adrien from you!”

Lila tried taking Adrien to her side, grabbing him by the wrist, but he shrugged her off.

“Adrien!”, Lila whined.

“Yeah, I think I’m starting to get what Damian said with respecting personal boundaries”, Adrien said to Mari, although everyone in the class heard him.

“May I remind you he said that while you hugged him without his permission?”

“It’s different, he considers me his friend”

“You sure about that?”

“He gave me his _phone number_ Mari, you don’t give that to someone you don’t consider your friend”

“He only gave it to you because you promessed you would only stop hugging him _after_ he gave you his phone”

“Guys! Stop ignoring me!”

Oh, yes. Lila had stayed standing right besides them, fuming. It was almost pitiful how much she desired their attention. For someone who claimed to hate Mari that much, it seemed like all she could think about was Mari herself.

Marinette had to hold in the laughter. Instead, she just smiled.

“Sorry, Lila, but we are kind of having a private conversation”

“About me!”

“No,” Adrien interrupted. “About my friendship with Damian, a friendship that Mari is trying so hard to destroy”

“Drama Queen”

Marinette rolled her eyes at Adrien and both of them walked to the elevator, leaving an astonished Lila behind. She surely didn’t expect for the conversation to go that way.

///////

The whole class had gone to their rooms. It was late, and they were all probably asleep. Except Mari, of course, who was busy making a list for a certain villain.

“I can’t believe you are actually going through with this, Marinette”

“What?”

“Working for the Riddler!”

“In the first place, I am not working _for_ him. It’s just a simple transaction. And secondly, it’s the least I can do after getting him caught”

“The _least?”_

Tikki wasn’t as excited as Mari about the project. That was sure. But Marinette brushed off the comments of the goddess aside and continued writing. She had already made the new suit design, and Mari was sure it would be incredible. She was just writing the materials she would need, and also asking the Riddler for his measurements. She even wrote out the total price, everything was ready to go.

Tikki took a look to the letter and she shaked her head.

“If you are really going to do it, charge more. It’s not as if he doesn’t have the money to spend”

Marinette rased her eyebrow, but obeyed. She change the number and put the letter inside an envelope.

She was thinking of the right way to deliver the letter. Of course, she could do as the Riddler said and send it through the mail or give it to one of the heroes. But she didn’t trust them for the task, she was afraid they would try to stop the business before she even started working.

So, she resorted to the hero she could trust the most: herself.

“Tikki, spots on!”

Marinette had changed her own suit just a tiny bit. She had made the red be darker, the bright red got too much attention. She was trying to be ignored by villains and heroes alike, and the old colour wouldn’t work. She also added some black details around the suit, and black gloves and boots. In the mirror, Ladybug looked more like an American hero.

She nodded, took the letter and went out the window. Ladybug threw her yoyo to the nearest building and pulled herself forward. From the maps she had searched online, Arkham had to be about an hour away from where she was staying. She just hoped that her way of transport made the whole trip quicker.

Half an hour in, and she was starting to lose that hope. Gotham was way bigger than Paris, and Arkham was in the northern part of the city, while the hotel was in the south. She was already tired from the day, and the constante throwing and pulling was starting to make a toll on her shoulders.

Ladybug decided to rest on one of the building’s roofs. She sat down and made sure that she was out of view from the citizens in the streets. She took out her yoyo and checked the map. Ladybug sighed, she still had twenty minutes to arrive.

A pair of feet fell on top of the rooftop. Before she could react, the person had thrown a batarang at her. The weapon cut some bits of hair from her pigtail, but it didn’t harm her in any way. Ladybug took a hand to her hair, and the other one grabbed her yoyo.

“I don’t want any trouble. I’ll leave right now”, she said while taking some steps back.

The hero had another idea. He threw another batarang, this time to the other pigtail. Well, that wasn’t a nice haircut.

“Who are you?”, said the hero as he came into the light.

 _Le Rouge-Gorge_.

She had to stop herself from calling him by the nickname. If he heard her, he would discover her identity, and as much as she liked him, she couldn’t risk it.

“What do you want?”, Robin asked. His voice wasn’t as kind as she remembered. It was cold, and had an edge to it. He had a sword pointed directly at her chest, ready to launch into fight if she did nay sudden movements.

“I’m delivering a message”, she gulped. “I’m no threat, as soon as I finish I’ll leave”

Robin went quiet for a few seconds. He looked as if he was actually believing her. He grinned, and lowered his sword a bit.

“Yeah, right”

Nevermind.

Robin launched himself at her, way too fast for Ladybug’s comfort. She jumped out of the way and took out her yoyo.

“I’m not going to do anything, I swear”

Robin didn’t listen. He ran towards her again, but this time when she tried to jump away, he grabbed her by the ankle and took her to the ground. Her back impacted against the concrete, and pain was instantly recognizable.

Ladybug had hoped she could spend her time in Gotham without being hurt, but it was already too late for that.

Robin jumped to her with his hands into fists, but befor ehe could punch her she kicked him to the side. Hurriedly, Ladybug stood back up and started spinning her yoyo. Robin stood up and lunched at her with the sword, but she protected herself with the yoyo.

“Ok! I won’t deliver the message, I’ll just go back to where I came from and I’ll disappear!”, she shouted on top of the clash of metal.

Robin growled. He gave up on the sword and tackled her.

“What is your thing with putting me in the ground?”, Ladybug complained.

Getting tired of the fight, she punched him right in the jaw, moved him to the side and stood up once more. Before he could start attacking her again, She threw her yoyo at him and wrapped him with it, making him completely incapacitated.

Robin tried untangling himself, but Ladybug didn’t give him the chance. Hoping for the best, she grabbed one of the batarangs on the floor and proceeded to throw the trapped Robin to the side of the building, holding him by the yoyo.

Even with the cars, she could hear his grunts and complaints. With the batarang, she stuck his cape to the building’s wall. Once confident he was not going to fall because of his own weight, she untangled him from the yoyo.

“I am going to make you pay for this”, he screamed as she walked away from her masterpiece.

“I’m sure you will”, she gasped.

Without turning back, she threw her yoyo and got herself as far away from Robin as she could. The Riddler’s letter could wait one more day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A song I was listening to while writing: Outrunning Karma, by Alec Benjamin.


End file.
